2 wk. ago • 96%

Researchers unlock cheap way to vaporize plastic and use it to make more plastic

www.techspot.com Researchers unlock cheap way to vaporize plastic and use it to make more plastic

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a new catalytic process that can vaporize the polyethylene (single-use bags) and polypropylene (hard plastics) that dominate trash piles, converting them...

World News @lemmit.online Researchers unlock cheap way to vaporize plastic and use it to make more plastic

20 comments

"vaporize"

Stand back, microplastics, here comes vaporplastics.

49
- Plastics are only plastics when many separate (often gaseous) molecules called monomers form large chains or webs called polymers. If you vaporize a polymer, it gets reverted to being many monomers
  
  33
  
  Great info, I was just making a bad joke. Thanks for the clarifications.
  
  24
  
  Are monomers harmless?
  
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- Vaporware.
  
  8
- Smell that? That’s called freedumb
  
  7
- In 2095, 70% of all children's eyes will contain vapor plastic.
  
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If it will help us clean up our mess, then great.

But it's not going to make it okay to continue churning out disposable plastics. We need the tech and we need to stop.

15
- That doesn't make sense. If we could reuse the same plastics over and over, they would be the ultimate in sustainable materials.
  
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  I think it would still break down and be in everything..
  
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Yeah they talk about this kind of stuff in this story and how it isn't going to save us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR2sYlDqdnw&t=762s

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- well that was depressing
  
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Finally

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That's !nottheonion@lemmy.world material.

7
"Researchers," meaning there's no reason to believe this is actually practical and there is no mention of the energy costs. The latter is especially important because as bad as microplastics are, climate change is just as bad, if not worse.

5
- Everything started as a proof of concept with no practical value at first. Like the transistor.
  
  I think for me, if we have a way to keep a substantial portion from entering the environment, that’s something.
  
  5
they had me in the first half

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