It's a miraculous thing corporations have done convincing us that we're the ones polluting the environment.
Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
81–90 of 351 posts
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
the places around here are using compostable plastic bags. not sure what it's made of but it can be composted in municipal facilities according to the bag. one downside is they are green tinted and harder to see what is in there but if it removes some of the plastic killing the ocean then i'm for it... assuming it's not a plastic that degrades into microplastics.
I just threw one of those into my compost pile last month and it’s still there. No clue how long it’s supposed to take.
yeah I mentioned municipal compost because they can get the compost temperature way higher than we can at home scale. It should break down in the big compost piles they have
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Polyolefin plastics like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypropylene and even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene are "solid hydrocarbons" but most plastics are more complex than that. One reason we quit burning trash in many places is the presence of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride which produces HCl which eats the incinerator. [1] Sure you can bu…
Most disposable plastic is not PVC. Because Chlorine prolongs the life of the plastic, it's specifically used on things that you don't throw out. In any case incinerators can handle the chlorine - it's so reactive that it's actually very easy to filter. > You can't really "burn up" heavy metals There are no heavy metals in plastic, and very little in consumer waste as a whole. > are "solid hydrocarbons" but most plas…
Municipal waste has a large fraction of waste from demolished buildings which includes wood, concrete, bricks, all sorts of stuff. PVC is a significant part of that waste because it is used for siding, floors, etc.
In a consolidated municipal waste stream heavy metals are a concern because they concentrate in the ash which has to be carefully stored. This kind of system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification
is supposed to encapsulate heavy metals into slag particles that aren't very mobile and can be incorporated into roads, building aggregates and such but people have struggled to make them work, part of it is that the syngas plant and whatever uses the syngas and cleans up the syngas and/or the products of using the syngas is a chemical factory that depends on the inputs having a certain composition and the composition of a municipal waste stream is not at all constant.
PET is a major thrown-out plastic that's not a hydrocarbon, it's also the most recycled. Polystyrene, funny enough, is easy to chemically recycle but not through pyrolysis, it's the sort of thing you might even demo in a high school chemistry class if styrene wasn't so carcinogenic. It's never caught on because expanded polystyrene is hard to handle, transport and bring back to a chemical factory large enough to efficiently consume.
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#84you could innovate to zero emissions but if the culture is hostile to it or angrily doesn't give a crap because 'culture' - then its worthless
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most disposable plastic is not PVC. Because Chlorine prolongs the life of the plastic, it's specifically used on things that you don't throw out. In any case incinerators can handle the chlorine - it's so reactive that it's actually very easy to filter. > You can't really "burn up" heavy metals There are no heavy metals in plastic, and very little in consumer waste as a whole. > are "solid hydrocarbons" but most plas…
Municipal waste has a large fraction of waste from demolished buildings which includes wood, concrete, bricks, all sorts of stuff. PVC is a significant part of that waste because it is used for siding, floors, etc. In a consolidated municipal waste stream heavy metals are a concern because they concentrate in the ash which has to be carefully stored. This kind of system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasificati…
How is PET not a hydrocarbon (for the purposes of burning it)? It's (C10 H8 O4)n the oxygen makes it not technically a hydrocarbon, but it will burn just fine and cleanly.
Your point about building waste is valid, but I think most of that stuff goes in dumpsters and can be directed to a different wasting handling.
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
the places around here are using compostable plastic bags. not sure what it's made of but it can be composted in municipal facilities according to the bag. one downside is they are green tinted and harder to see what is in there but if it removes some of the plastic killing the ocean then i'm for it... assuming it's not a plastic that degrades into microplastics.
> it can be composted in municipal facilities according to the bag Note that "according to the bag" is very different from "according to your municipality"; my understanding is that most places actually can't handle them, and they might need to divert your compost to the landfill if it has too much of those plastic bags. They can be composed under certain conditions, but whether the facility your municipality uses ha…
My understanding is most manicipal compost facilities can handle them - the vast majority of manicipalities don't have a facility at all. They are expensive. A home pile won't compost them, a pile at manicipal size is likely a health hazzard and so not a good option.
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would be nice to have bags like that with their weight printed on them that machines trust.
Where I live they have scales that tare at the beginning as part of the process of using your own bag.
Do you write down the result? How is the process connected? Smart produce scales log weight => Smart checkout scales compare weight to produce logs?
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#88I would kill for this for when I’m buying fresh produce at the shops. Right now I just raw dog the produce into my basket as putting 4 apples into a plastic bag to ease the weighing and transport home seems like a selfish thing to do to the environment, but something that starts to break down soon after that sounds great.
I've been doing that since before anyone cared, it just seems wasteful to use a bag for a handful of things. I use bags if I buy more than a few of something, or if it's something with dirt on like potatoes.
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#89I would kill for this for when I’m buying fresh produce at the shops. Right now I just raw dog the produce into my basket as putting 4 apples into a plastic bag to ease the weighing and transport home seems like a selfish thing to do to the environment, but something that starts to break down soon after that sounds great.
Why don't you just buy some re-usable fruit bags?
https://www.target.com/p/lotus-original-reusable-produce-bag...
Re: Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
#90I already use cellulose based bags for my compost waste, and they only stay reliable for about 3 days of usage after something is put in them. This makes them a huge pain to use. I think they also degrade quite a bit (i.e. shorter lifespan in use) after just a few months because each new roll of bags seems better at the beginning.
I found that using bags for compost isn’t really necessary at all. I just dump the container out each night and clean it along with my dishes. It’s nice this way because then nothing is ever actually rotting in my indoor trash.
Having a stainless steel compost container helps with this, as it’s easier to clean and doesn’t retain odors like the plastic bins.