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let's do a thought experiment.. think of a modern passenger airplane. That airplane has thousands of specialized parts really.. each one made of plastic or met
by mistrial9 3y ago
let's do a thought experiment..
think of a modern passenger airplane. That airplane has thousands of specialized parts really.. each one made of plastic or metals or other.. together, it makes something that has enormous, powerful benefit.. to travel over water and mountains and neighbors, to get to a destination and very quickly. Each of those airplane parts could be "recycled" at the end of life, but a) they are unique to their purposes, not made to be generally recyclable and b) the materials are often very low cost in terms of the raw material inputs.. manufacturing starts to mature like that.. so any recycling value for just the materials, is likely low from the material point of view alone..
Now, with that example in mind.. think of a PC computer or server rack mount computers .. each part could be taken out.. the value of the material itself, and the lack of recyclable design.. makes each part very low value and difficult or impossible to recycle.. and here is the conclusion..
The very high value of the complete device or airplane, is completely lost once more than a few parts are removed. The "value chain" of reuse is destroyed quickly.. with the scrap being far, far less value than the thing it came from.. this is a giant loss of energy in more than one way, and a giant source of waste in the deepest sense..
- r00fus 3y agoYour analogy would break down as, if the airplane were intact and had good chain of custody, then the owner would at the very least sell it to a junkyard that would part out the most valuable parts. More likely it would be sold to be reused. The challenge is the capitalist strategy of manufactured obsolescence that make valid products turn into complete junk to sell new product. That and the proliferation of cheap ill designed products are the largest source of waste in the world.
- infinite-hugs 3y agoWhile recycling may not be cost effective in some cases, for what it’s worth there is a thriving remanufacturing market of airplane parts.