Live data from Hacker News

Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

peopleofcolorintech.com

81–90 of 197 posts

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#81

Do people of color ever roll their eyes at websites like this? Does it ever just seem silly? edit: I am white, and my question is not for white people. I call it “peopleofcoloronhackernews” :^)

It seems like you want them to. Why is that?

I would think a good number of under-represented people would be interested and maybe inspired.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#82

Mixing plastics with asphalt has been tried for roads in India for many years now. There is one stretch near where I live which was done 10+ years ago. There is an official policy on trying this, as a pilot, for any agency that wishes to use it. See: https://www.prakati.in/use-of-plastic-for-road-construction-... The road which I use occasionally seems reasonably good as roads go. Unless you see the boards informing…

I think plastic probably makes more sense as a construction material than for roads. Cars are really tough on roads. I have to imagine that plastic in roads would get shredded into microplastics and wind up all over the place.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#83

Do people of color ever roll their eyes at websites like this? Does it ever just seem silly? edit: I am white, and my question is not for white people. I call it “peopleofcoloronhackernews” :^)

It seems like you want them to. Why is that? I would think a good number of under-represented people would be interested and maybe inspired.

I'm genuinely curious what they think, because I am not one, and yeah websites like this do seem kind of silly to me. My question was also for them, and I'm guessing since you said "them" and "I would think", you are white, so why are you responding to it? I understand the intention; I am asking about the actual effect.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#84

Do people of color ever roll their eyes at websites like this? Does it ever just seem silly? edit: I am white, and my question is not for white people. I call it “peopleofcoloronhackernews” :^)

it's pretty offensive to me, what the huwites would call a racial bipoc

look! he did a thing even though he's one of those XYZs!

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#85

This is brilliant. It's like asphalt, which is just concrete (cement, sand and lime) with some of the cement replaced with oil/tar. This is that same idea but using plastic not oil/tar. Truly brilliant. It's a new type of composite building material.

The bricks will aspirate toxic chemicals when exposed to direct sunlight: "...Plastics leached twice as much pollution in sunlight as in darkness, they found. One bag leached 263 different chemicals in the dark but more than 13,000 when exposed to light! Others leached even more. And the longer bags were exposed to sunlight, the more chemicals they leached. ..." https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/everyday…

Article states this is “plastic that otherwise would be dumped in the city’s overflowing garbage heaps.” Environmental impact of these plastics should be weighed relative to the impact of those same plastics sitting in said garbage heaps. It’s likely safer sequestered in a processed brick optimized for durability than it would be rapidly degrading from e.g. thin plastic bag material into microplastics leaching into the soils and water tables around the dump.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#87

This is brilliant. It's like asphalt, which is just concrete (cement, sand and lime) with some of the cement replaced with oil/tar. This is that same idea but using plastic not oil/tar. Truly brilliant. It's a new type of composite building material.

I think this description of asphalt is in error. Asphalt itself is a form of petroleum, specifically a type of pitch, which occurs in nature and is also known as bitumen. It is used as a binder for various aggregates in asphalt concrete, which is what everyone calls asphalt. I do not think that cement and lime are involved at all.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#89
post #61

Quoted post unavailable.

Asbestos is just a natural mineral they said...

which Canada had long banned for internal use but only stopped exporting it last year to 3rd world countries after an international outcry. I can't remember if there's still some exemptions or loopholes they're using to continue to use.

Re: Engineer turns plastic into bricks that are reportedly stronger than concrete

#90

Do people of color ever roll their eyes at websites like this? Does it ever just seem silly? edit: I am white, and my question is not for white people. I call it “peopleofcoloronhackernews” :^)

It’s a little on the nose, but the point is to be an example for other people of color. An illustration that this type of work can be done by “us”. What I don’t like is when the claims are needlessly exaggerated.

I can understand that. I just can't not draw the comparison to the way we segregate sports by sex, since males are generally bigger and stronger than females, and I wonder if any POCs see stuff like this in a similar way.

And to clarify - I am not suggesting there is any similarity to that and intelligence, I am just pointing out that websites like this sort of make it seem like that's the case. Please don't assume this is racism, I am here to gain perspective about something I don't understand.

Post reply on HN