A new method for recycling colored plastics has been developed by scientists at Cardiff University.
Thalestr
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fedilink
162Y

“Huge environmental challenge” It’s actually quite simple. Stop using single-use plastics for absolutely everything. Regulate the creation of plastic post-consumables. Regulate companies that disallow repair and/or create products that are designed to fail prematurely. etc etc

We need less plastics in circulation, not encouraging the production of more. We need regulatory bodies that actually have the teeth to go after these big companies and force them to comply.

They found that the colors could be removed during the depolymerization process, making the plastics recyclable and more sustainable.

It sounds like an interesting study, but would it affect anything? If something, it further enables plastic production (after a minor PR stunt on making some bottles colorless), while most of it ends up in the landfills after exactly one use mixed with everything else. Production of excessive products is unsustainable, recycling comes after we couldn’t escape it.

Nice solution looking for a problem. The actual issue with recycling is that the unsorted hodgepodge gathered is often hopelessly contaminated and hell to extract any value from, coloured or not. The most obvious solution is reduction, and maybe collectively getting our mess organized (and I don’t just mean consumers), but that’s no fun I guess.

hedge
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62Y

Be very skeptical about this 🤔

Pyr
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fedilink
22Y

Why is anyone allowed to even produce non-recyclable materials?

If it’s made from plastic, tell them they can only make it from plastic that can be recyclable.

Unless it’s used in something like industrial machinery and typically wouldn’t need to be recycled anyways, I don’t see why a ban would be so hard for things like dollar store toys and camping utensils, etc.

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