3 ms·

I don’t think it can work. When I interned at a consumer product manufacturer they used 1/3rd recycled and 2/3rds new plastic. Recycled plastic is too low quali

I don’t think it can work. When I interned at a consumer product manufacturer they used 1/3rd recycled and 2/3rds new plastic. Recycled plastic is too low quality to pass QA. And they could only used recycled bottles.

hakfoo 3y ago
I wonder if the QA standards are too high for throwaway goods. Is a soda bottle a high-precision moulding that needs super-precise tolerances? And if so, are there ways to redesign this to reduce the constraints?
- 542458 3y ago
  Soda bottles are injection-blowmolded, which requires fairly predictable elongation under heat and pressure. I do know using 100% post consumer plastic would affect elongation, but I don’t know how significant the effect is or how hard it would be to compensate for. Fwiw they do need fairly tight tolerances otherwise the cap won’t seal and the product will leak or spoil.
  - wuming2 3y ago
    Would it help to increase thickness? More weight and material, increased cost, to factor in the reduced trail of pollution every piece of single use plastic has?
    - ygra 3y ago
      This probably leads you to reusable bottles, which are just cleaned and refilled again.
      - wuming2 3y ago
        Would be the next logical step. But without strong incentives, either intentional rationing of row materials or the equivalent sharp increase of their cost, I don’t see any indication producers and retailers would adopt it.
- droopyEyelids 3y ago
  The problem is the plastic we see as a uniform material is a chemical cocktail of the polymer, plasticizers, chain extenders, curing agents, lubricators and process aids, stabilizers, colorants and more. Size tolerance, the way plastic flows through the molding equipment, temperature at which its blown, how much shit leeches into the beverage, how strong the resulting container is, all that factors in. Plastics are a complex technology and people are optimizing what we can do with them as across every dimension much as possible
Mandatum 3y ago
That’s because it degrades each time you use it. There’s a reason the cheapest stuff comes in black, thick, low quality plastic containers. It’s because it’s just short of being processed into either astroturf or roads. Some stuff gets re-manufactured 5 or 6 times. The majority gets manufactured once and ends up in landfill. Glass, metal and standardised sizes is really the only way forward.
hedora 3y ago
That’s fine. The input to the recycling facility has to match the grade that was shipped. Capitalism can find a use for the low grade plastic, or a way to avoid producing stuff that needs high quality plastic.

hakfoo 3y ago

I wonder if the QA standards are too high for throwaway goods. Is a soda bottle a high-precision moulding that needs super-precise tolerances? And if so, are there ways to redesign this to reduce the constraints?

542458 3y ago
Soda bottles are injection-blowmolded, which requires fairly predictable elongation under heat and pressure. I do know using 100% post consumer plastic would affect elongation, but I don’t know how significant the effect is or how hard it would be to compensate for. Fwiw they do need fairly tight tolerances otherwise the cap won’t seal and the product will leak or spoil.
- wuming2 3y ago
  Would it help to increase thickness? More weight and material, increased cost, to factor in the reduced trail of pollution every piece of single use plastic has?
  - ygra 3y ago
    This probably leads you to reusable bottles, which are just cleaned and refilled again.
    - wuming2 3y ago
      Would be the next logical step. But without strong incentives, either intentional rationing of row materials or the equivalent sharp increase of their cost, I don’t see any indication producers and retailers would adopt it.
droopyEyelids 3y ago
The problem is the plastic we see as a uniform material is a chemical cocktail of the polymer, plasticizers, chain extenders, curing agents, lubricators and process aids, stabilizers, colorants and more. Size tolerance, the way plastic flows through the molding equipment, temperature at which its blown, how much shit leeches into the beverage, how strong the resulting container is, all that factors in. Plastics are a complex technology and people are optimizing what we can do with them as across every dimension much as possible

Mandatum 3y ago

That’s because it degrades each time you use it. There’s a reason the cheapest stuff comes in black, thick, low quality plastic containers. It’s because it’s just short of being processed into either astroturf or roads. Some stuff gets re-manufactured 5 or 6 times. The majority gets manufactured once and ends up in landfill. Glass, metal and standardised sizes is really the only way forward.

hedora 3y ago

That’s fine. The input to the recycling facility has to match the grade that was shipped. Capitalism can find a use for the low grade plastic, or a way to avoid producing stuff that needs high quality plastic.