• ianovic69@feddit.uk
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    23 days ago

    In practical terms, how realistic is it to just not allow the stuff to be made?

    I see much less of it these days, which is great and it’s usually replaced with cardboard that I imagine is much easier to recycle.

    Can we do away with completely? It’s such an awful substance, it grinds my gears, as they say.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    22 days ago

    Maybe we could just stop making plastic of all kinds. Reduce Reuse Recycle. Recycling is literally the last resort, we don’t need most of our plastic stuff today.

    • Tramort@programming.dev
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      23 days ago

      The problem is how low the density is.

      Sure: per kilogram it looks ok, but that one kilogram took up an entire train car to move around.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Oh my God my wife bought this bean bag once. It was a photography thing so it had to be absolutely packed full. So the skin came folded up in this tiny little plastic bag and then it came with three giant bags of styrofoam balls.

          If you stuck your hand in the back and pulled it out it would just be coated. I spent hours just trying to scoop them into the bean bag.

          When I got to the second bag to fill I found a long narrow box and taped it up to the side of the bean bag slice the bean bag open and used it to pour them through.

          The whole experience was awful. And the cleanup took nearly as long as the fill.

    • nomad@infosec.pub
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      21 days ago

      In situ processing should solve that. Imagine a machine where you put that in, it gets crushed and sprayed and the liquid is transported and recycled.

  • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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    22 days ago

    why is this better than just icinerating it for baseload power? That is the only truly safe way to dispose of plastic, plus pyrolisis adds an extra step, which costs more energy.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

    Creating 2.2 pounds (one kilogram) of this new material requires less than 10 megajoules of energy—roughly enough to power a typical microwave for around 30 minutes. This efficient energy use is a key advantage of the process.

    2778 watt-hours per kilogram? That doesn’t seem very efficient at all.

    My bigger concern is the health hazards of this process, especially in terms of uncontained byproducts. Pyrolizing styrofoam can’t possibly be non-hazardous.