While this is technically possible it is not a cost effective solution to plastic recycling.
Deesnuts77 on
Psychotic capitalism at its finest. Instead of addressing the issue with huge corporations creating plastic for literally everything, they create a new industry to deal with the problem instead of stopping the source of the problem. They act like it’s some unstoppable mystery why plastic is in everything. Maybe force the gigantic cooperations that are the worst offenders in plastics to fund research to replace plastic instead of creating a solution to deal with plastic. I wonder what horrible gasses are a byproduct of “vaporizing” plastic.
illforgetsoonenough on
I do believe that is the definition of vaporizing, yes
Josephdirte on
You could put it in a landfill where it’s going to stay for millions of years, or you can burn it up, get a nice smokey smell and let the smoke go up into the sky where it turns into stars!!
fourleggedostrich on
Chlorine is “nothing but gas”, and it turns our lungs to acid.
This is a stupid headline.
mirh on
Friendly reminder that in the EU almost half of all plastics is already recycled.
You just need this crazy thing called taxes to sway the market.
OnlyHeStandsThere on
Direct nuclear strikes can also turn ANYTHING into nothing but gas. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
WoesteWam on
Thats… thats what vaporizing means.
Fancy-Ambassador6160 on
The same kind of gas that we breath? How will they compete with microplastics for space in my body
live4failure on
So instead of acid rain we will have acid/plastic rain?
iCowboy on
This is actually good news – as the article says, the end results are propylene and isobutylene which are feedstocks for plastics manufacturing. We should absolutely reduce our use of plastics, but by recycling them into feedstock we could reduce the need for more to be made from natural gas and oil.
BallBearingBill on
Vaporizing anything turns it into a gas. Vapor is a gaseous state!
Actiaslunahello on
Butt gas? That’s amazing. 🤭 Okay, I’ll go read the article now.
As you may notice it’s not exactly brand new but it is interesting even if Ars Technica are a bit late on their report.
Chogo82 on
Is this how the microplastics gets into my balls?
ChoirBoyComparedToMe on
What gas?
devinprocess on
Comment section = click bait headline meets low attention span Reddit that won’t read the article
skyfishgoo on
the best thing to do is stop making so many plastic things and sort existing plastic from the waste stream so we can sequester it under ground.
the idea that we can easily recycle something as complex as our plastics waste stream is way behind our ability to generate plastic waste.
while this idea hold some promise, they don’t indicate where where the HEAT required is coming from and that matters almost as much as what plastics are being fed into the process.
and then there is the handling of all the toxic chemicals required to make this process work in a clean way that does not produce pollution or release any of these gases into the environment.
21 Comments
And gasses can’t be harmful. Right!?
While this is technically possible it is not a cost effective solution to plastic recycling.
Psychotic capitalism at its finest. Instead of addressing the issue with huge corporations creating plastic for literally everything, they create a new industry to deal with the problem instead of stopping the source of the problem. They act like it’s some unstoppable mystery why plastic is in everything. Maybe force the gigantic cooperations that are the worst offenders in plastics to fund research to replace plastic instead of creating a solution to deal with plastic. I wonder what horrible gasses are a byproduct of “vaporizing” plastic.
I do believe that is the definition of vaporizing, yes
You could put it in a landfill where it’s going to stay for millions of years, or you can burn it up, get a nice smokey smell and let the smoke go up into the sky where it turns into stars!!
Chlorine is “nothing but gas”, and it turns our lungs to acid.
This is a stupid headline.
Friendly reminder that in the EU almost half of all plastics is already recycled.
You just need this crazy thing called taxes to sway the market.
Direct nuclear strikes can also turn ANYTHING into nothing but gas. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Thats… thats what vaporizing means.
The same kind of gas that we breath? How will they compete with microplastics for space in my body
So instead of acid rain we will have acid/plastic rain?
This is actually good news – as the article says, the end results are propylene and isobutylene which are feedstocks for plastics manufacturing. We should absolutely reduce our use of plastics, but by recycling them into feedstock we could reduce the need for more to be made from natural gas and oil.
Vaporizing anything turns it into a gas. Vapor is a gaseous state!
Butt gas? That’s amazing. 🤭 Okay, I’ll go read the article now.
More information:
[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022Sci…377.1561C/abstract](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022Sci…377.1561C/abstract)
[https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add1088](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add1088)
As you may notice it’s not exactly brand new but it is interesting even if Ars Technica are a bit late on their report.
Is this how the microplastics gets into my balls?
What gas?
Comment section = click bait headline meets low attention span Reddit that won’t read the article
the best thing to do is stop making so many plastic things and sort existing plastic from the waste stream so we can sequester it under ground.
the idea that we can easily recycle something as complex as our plastics waste stream is way behind our ability to generate plastic waste.
while this idea hold some promise, they don’t indicate where where the HEAT required is coming from and that matters almost as much as what plastics are being fed into the process.
and then there is the handling of all the toxic chemicals required to make this process work in a clean way that does not produce pollution or release any of these gases into the environment.
Sweet delicious gas that turns into cancer
that’s what….vaporizing means??????