Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 113 posts

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#11

Post by kragen »

amelius wrote: post #9
kragen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually your sandwich is made from poop. The poop fertilized plants, the plants were harvested, some of them were turned into bread, others fed a pig, and that's what you're eating. Some of the poop decayed and was released as gases into the air, which were then recaptured by the plants, by bacteria in the roots of soybeans, and by Haber-Bosch factories (confusingly also called plants) which made synthetic fertilize…

This is the same as the endless recycling of water.

Yes, Thich Nhat Hanh uses the example of the hydrological cycle instead of poop: "That watermelon is made of clouds."

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#12

Post by agumonkey »

WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

Heh was about to say this. Also, how much is the recycling industry can absorb the potential flood of old ICE cars ?

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#13

Post by WJW »

agumonkey wrote: post #12
WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

Heh was about to say this. Also, how much is the recycling industry can absorb the potential flood of old ICE cars ?

Recycling of old cars is already pretty well developed. You drain the old fluids and strip any parts with secondary market value, then compact the whole thing and tip it whole into a steel melting furnace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHKUpwMboY

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#14

Post by jahnu »

kragen wrote: post #7
plebianRube wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sandwich you're eating? Made from old recycled half eaten sandwiches.

Actually your sandwich is made from poop. The poop fertilized plants, the plants were harvested, some of them were turned into bread, others fed a pig, and that's what you're eating. Some of the poop decayed and was released as gases into the air, which were then recaptured by the plants, by bacteria in the roots of soybeans, and by Haber-Bosch factories (confusingly also called plants) which made synthetic fertilize…

Only a tiny amount of it though. It's almost all made from air.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#15

Post by dkarp »

WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

People don’t realise this when they think of landfill.

In future, we could have an effective way of mining landfill for resources. Some forms of recycling now are highly inefficient and it’s conceivable that we’d be better off utilizing landfill and recycling with better techniques later.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#16

Post by bombcar »

dkarp wrote: post #15
WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

People don’t realise this when they think of landfill. In future, we could have an effective way of mining landfill for resources. Some forms of recycling now are highly inefficient and it’s conceivable that we’d be better off utilizing landfill and recycling with better techniques later.

There’s an argument for doing roughly the recycling sorting we do now and then just burying it.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#17

Post by baybal2 »

I would very much like to see where they got their breakdown.

The "electrical vehicles by weight" looks pretty much like Tesla Model S breakdown.

Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel.

The engine block is the heaviest part in an ICE vehicle, but it's usually made of grey iron, and not really steel, with German cars some times using silicon-aluminium, or much rarely magnesium alloy.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#18

Post by Benjamin_Dobell »

kragen wrote: post #7
plebianRube wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sandwich you're eating? Made from old recycled half eaten sandwiches.

Actually your sandwich is made from poop. The poop fertilized plants, the plants were harvested, some of them were turned into bread, others fed a pig, and that's what you're eating. Some of the poop decayed and was released as gases into the air, which were then recaptured by the plants, by bacteria in the roots of soybeans, and by Haber-Bosch factories (confusingly also called plants) which made synthetic fertilize…

Pretty sure it's just a (slightly misquoted) Futurama reference.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#19

Post by sidewndr46 »

baybal2 wrote: post #17

I would very much like to see where they got their breakdown. The "electrical vehicles by weight" looks pretty much like Tesla Model S breakdown. Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel. The engine block is the heaviest part in an ICE vehicle, but it's usually made of grey iron, and not really steel, with German cars some times using silicon-aluminium, or much rarely magne…

I don't know how you come to this conclusion, but the engine block in a modern passenger car is definitely not the heaviest part. The engine block itself is often incredibly light, even a V8 made from cast iron would only be a few hundred pounds.

The body (or unibody) of any modern car is far heavier, given that it has so many functions and safety features as part of its design.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#20

Post by agumonkey »

WJW wrote: post #13
agumonkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh was about to say this. Also, how much is the recycling industry can absorb the potential flood of old ICE cars ?

Recycling of old cars is already pretty well developed. You drain the old fluids and strip any parts with secondary market value, then compact the whole thing and tip it whole into a steel melting furnace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHKUpwMboY

yes but the rate of recycling may explode due to EVs (potentially)
Post reply on HN