…a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has designed a recyclable plastic that, like a Lego playset, can be disassembled into its constituent parts at the molecular level, and then reassembled into a different shape, texture, and color again and again without loss of performance or quality. The new material, called poly(diketoenamine), or PDK, was reported in the journal Nature Chemistry. […]
Unlike conventional plastics, the monomers of PDK plastic could be recovered and freed from any compounded additives simply by dunking the material in a highly acidic solution. The acid helps to break the bonds between the monomers and separate them from the chemical additives that give plastic its look and feel.
“We’re interested in the chemistry that redirects plastic lifecycles from linear to circular,” said Helms. “We see an opportunity to make a difference for where there are no recycling options.” That includes adhesives, phone cases, watch bands, shoes, computer cables, and hard thermosets that are created by molding hot plastic material.
Hope it works.
It looks like a great idea. Malthusians and Luddites will not like it in any case.
Me too Kate..
Calgarys “solution” has been to collect it for a fee and then since no one on the planet wants the stuff – it (~600+containers full and growing), is being stored, in the City at significant cost to Ratepyers….something to the tune of $ 300,00 Annually and rising.
But the Imbeciles On Council would have a stroke if anyone even casually mentioned INCINERATION to produce: Steam to power Electricity generating Trubines …. No one can tell me we don’t have the tech to scrubb and/or incinerate at a high enough temperature to make the end result entirely palatable.
I will note the ECONazis have yet to offer a solution – all they do is Screech & take foreign $$ to do so.
Looks promising; in the meantime, bury old plastic in muskeg or a national park. The earth will survive plastic. Oh, and by the way, we actually do not need very many immigrants and refugees.
Steakman,
There was a project to do the incineration thing here in Ottawa a few years back. I was working IT on tangential projects, and happened to be talking to the garbage people about it. The project was to use plasma or plasma level heat to incinerate everything down to atoms and then used the resulting sludge for any number of purposes. It failed because, as the garbage people explained, they were not able to use a high enough temperature to melt down ‘everything’ that came through the stream of refuse and this resulted in regular stoppages and breakdowns.
I never found out why they could not have just increased the heat, but it seemed like it was working at plasma heat, and still not able to make clean burns of some materials.
There was also the problem of contamination – the flow of garbage was a problem, since a lot of the crap the people throw into the garbage burned badly resulting in stoppages and breakdowns.
“That includes adhesives, phone cases, watch bands, shoes, computer cables, and hard thermosets that are created by molding hot plastic material.”
Wait for it……………….aaaaand GUNS 🙂
Can’t wait until the tantrums begin.
note it is the department of ENERGY, and not the epa.
interesting.
and these projects as well…
https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-invest-65-million-large-scale-pilot-fossil-fuel-projects
Coal is on the cusp of becoming a near-zero atmospheric CO2 emissions option (easily economically feasible 95% CO2 capture).
The EPA and greens in general aren’t the least bit interested in seeing this option to practically eliminate human gaseous CO2 generation whilst still providing ample, cheap and virtually infinite energy for all of humanity. This is because, as most readers on this site know, gaseous carbon regulation has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with left-wing totalitarianism.
How long before the eco-loon-Leftists SCREAM for a BAN on this technology … as it will only “encourage” the use and manufacture of plastics? “Encourage” the exploration and production of fossil fuels. This manipulation of nature MUST be STOPPED! It’s the equivalent of GMO’s … for Giant molecules!
This is the same argument made by Jerry Brown, The Sierra Club, and every other eco-loon .org … to STOP any freeway repair, maintenance, or enlargement. “It will only encourage MORE automobile driving”
Or some of the left’s other favorites:
“Miracle plastic has been linked to cancer”
“Studies show miracle plastic MAY be related to … anxiety, depression, heart disease”
I wonder what the price is, vs polyethylene. Getting the original polymer back is half problem, the other is, is it cost competitive with substitutes.
If it isn’t cost competitive, this will be yet another expensive technology the left shoves down the public’s throat to “ save the planet “.
In time technology is often developed to solve issues. This looks to be yet another example.
One of my frustrations is how little people understand the reasoning behind modern (post-1955) landfills in the first place. The idea was/is that a landfill would be a repository for any and all materials that at the time have less value to recapture and recycle than the cost of doing so.
In time it is assumed that the economics will change and many of the materials stored in the landfill will become valuable enough for them to be mined. Landfills concentrate all of those current waste products in one easy-to-locate spot. The idea was never to make this a permanent never-to-be-touched again process.
Unfortunately early landfill design was done with a poor understanding of hydrology and there were several leaching events (love canal etc.) that gave them a very bad name in the general public and that proponents have done a miserable job of rebuking.
Today’s landfills have several barriers to leaching – heavy clay, rubber/plastic membrane.
In sum, landfills provide the Ultimate recycling option. They are by far the most cost-effective method and – contrary to the propaganda of the the left – there is plenty of land base available to store the “waste”. Hopefully landfill technology and goals will become better understood by the general public and the current uneconomic recycling programs are abandoned.
I had extensive experience at our local “dump” as a youth … making numerous trips to dispose of every kind of waste imaginable. In 1970, our local “dump” was nothing more than a hole in the ground covered in flocks of seagulls. Now … all “dumping” is done INSIDE a warehouse, where the dumped material is sorted (by hand and machine) and diverted to multiple recycling or landfill sites. Indeed, the landfills are more remote, located in the hills and underlined exactly as you describe, with multiple monitors to detect leaks and buildup of methane.
Big changes in landfill practices … all for the better
Why the hell should we waste human labor sorting through garbage, which is worthless? Picking through mountains of garbage is one of the facets of Third World life that makes it Third World life. We don’t need it here.
I agree. In a decade or so we could have robots digging through landfills. Why waste human effort and money on it today?
aaaaah jeez kenji, I just had a flashback.
same thing for me, accompanying my dad the ULTIMATE recycling pioneer.
he would scrounge a dozen of them within economical driving range, one time found a huge coil of insulated copper and promptly set fire to it to burn off the insulation, and made a beeline to that landfill next time around. he *knew* bare wire paid far better.
oh jeez. the stench, filth, dont wear yer good shoes hb, the flies, etc. and once in a blue moon *I* would find some artifact, very rarely however.
he never used the garage for anything but his own private metal recycling operation. he knew spot prices in his head, and would either ignore or stockpile until the price went up.
nowadays, pffft. NO salvaging *whatsoever* permitted, ‘liability’ and such crapola.
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-plastic-in-our-bodies-health/
I first came upon this story (the use of a thistle-like plant to produce biodegradable plastic bags) via Radio-Canada a couple of years ago. Never saw any reports in English news, just reports of plans to ban plastic bags & straws.
Here’s a different approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiL3OFWoZA4
“According to a recent study carried out by the University of Georgia, 275 million tons of plastic waste are produced each year around the world. Around 32 million tons of that plastic waste ends up on coasts and 8 million tons in the ocean — disfiguring beaches, polluting the environment and threatening biodiversity.
A solution to this problem could come from the cardoon, a thistle-like plant closely related to the artichoke. In northern Sardinia, it is being grown to produce the oils needed …”
READ MORE :
https://www.euronews.com/2015/07/14/sardinian-plant-gets-second-life-in-biodegradable-plastics
Pretty sure that is a very different technology than this latest one. Biodegradable plastics are NOT recyclable in the true sense of the term.
Gabby – At what cost? If it is cheaper than the existing plastic then it will be adopted voluntarily by industry.
I saw an interview of a Mid West University researcher on BNN a few months back where the scientist had done a pilot project breaking down plastics with super-heated steam into petroleum fractions usable for gasoline , distillates, etc. She claimed the energy recovery was 85% and could be brought into cost competitiveness with scale. Can’t remember her name but it could likely be dug up on BNN Bloomberg.
highly acidic solution?
then once it is unusable what will they do with the billions of gallons of highly acidic solution?
will that create a new sort of vilain? we will then have to fight global acidicity ( or whatever word it should be )