Peak plastic
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Peak plastic
1–10 of 41 posts
Re: Peak plastic
#2The bigger problem is the medication sector which is based on the petrochemical industry (eg. aspirin). I'd rather eat on wooden plates than stay with a head-ache. probably even more life-indispensable drugs are made of petroleum.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Pharmaceutical+drugs+made+fro...
Plastic is easily replaceable with cleaner and healthier materials (glass, wood, ...) Not everywhere, but on the basic necessities for sure. Also, we don't need to use new storage materials every time, but reuse more quality ones.
Re: Peak plastic
#3The bigger problem is the medication sector which is based on the petrochemical industry (eg. aspirin). I'd rather eat on wooden plates than stay with a head-ache. probably even more life-indispensable drugs are made of petroleum. http://www.google.com/search?q=Pharmaceutical+drugs+made+fro... Plastic is easily replaceable with cleaner and healthier materials (glass, wood, ...) Not everywhere, but on the basic necess…
Using petrol on personal transportation is such a waste. I'd like to see a heavy carbon tax so that this fantastic, but finite, resource would be directed to things where it really adds value. The US subsidising wars to get more of it makes selfish sense, but to burn it immediately instead of building infrastructure is shameful.
Re: Peak plastic
#4I see no reason we can't make plastic out of biomaterials like corn.
By the way, I never understand why they don't make roofs on houses out of plastic. It seems like they'd never degrade or leak, and it would be faster to install.
Are shingles really that cheap?
Re: Peak plastic
#5I see no reason we can't make plastic out of biomaterials like corn. By the way, I never understand why they don't make roofs on houses out of plastic. It seems like they'd never degrade or leak, and it would be faster to install. Are shingles really that cheap?
UV-resistant plastic that does not degrade with repeated temperature cycling costs more than shingles at the moment is the way I understand it.
Re: Peak plastic
#6Well, we'll probably find out a way to synthesize plastic out of other materials rich in hydrocarbons, like algae. It's going to be pretty expensive at first, but I can see biofuels occupying their own niche even in an economy that is dominated by hydrogen or some other "clean" resource.
Re: Peak plastic
#7The thing is, of the oil taken out of the earth, what percent has been used for plastic? I'm not sure but a very small portion.
Now even if we're at peak oil now which is certainly not necessarily true, the Hubbert Curve (where the definition of peak oil comes from) shows that peak occurs when 50% of the oil has been extracted.
Thus we can assume we have at least half the oil available to humanity not yet extracted (let alone all the non-traditional oil techniques like tar sands which boost reserves by an order of magnitude).
My point is that while the price of oil will go up as supply can't keep up with demand, we are nowhere near being in the position where oil is not available for materials. We're also nowhere near being in a position where oil's not economic for materials, because as plastic, oil is arguably very valuable.
Sure we may reach a point where oil's primary value is as plastic, once we solve the other-energy-source challenge. But we don't need to worry about running out of feedstock for plastics, and we certainly won't need to excavate old landfills for the stuff. At least not soon.
Re: Peak plastic
#8The bigger problem is the medication sector which is based on the petrochemical industry (eg. aspirin). I'd rather eat on wooden plates than stay with a head-ache. probably even more life-indispensable drugs are made of petroleum. http://www.google.com/search?q=Pharmaceutical+drugs+made+fro... Plastic is easily replaceable with cleaner and healthier materials (glass, wood, ...) Not everywhere, but on the basic necess…
Also fertilizer.
Re: Peak plastic
#9I see no reason we can't make plastic out of biomaterials like corn. By the way, I never understand why they don't make roofs on houses out of plastic. It seems like they'd never degrade or leak, and it would be faster to install. Are shingles really that cheap?
Shingles are made of asphalt, derived from the lowest grade of oil. It's so cheap we paint it all over our roads, too.
Re: Peak plastic
#10Well, we'll probably find out a way to synthesize plastic out of other materials rich in hydrocarbons, like algae. It's going to be pretty expensive at first, but I can see biofuels occupying their own niche even in an economy that is dominated by hydrogen or some other "clean" resource.
Considering plastic doesn't have the CO2 emissions that oil-for-fuel does, there's no reason to use non-oil-based plastic any time soon. We can move off oil for fuel and keep using it for plastic!