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Life cycle assessment of enzymatic PET recycling

116 点作者 ph0rque超过 2 年前

12 条评论

jeroenhd超过 2 年前
So far, the entire concept if recycling plastic has been invented by Big Plastic to appease consumers that started being worried about it years ago. Plastic is barely being recycled right now because it&#x27;s simply not economical despite government investment to make up for economical shortcomings. Rich countries end up shipping tons of plastics to poor countries, where the stuff gets buried or burned despite promises of recycling. The few plastics that do manage to get recycled can only be recycled a few times because the quality degrades across the process.<p>I hope this technology can fix the problem, but I&#x27;ve seen more of these revolutionary technologies in the news over the last decade. They all promise to make plastic recycling viable and say it&#x27;s really going to happen this time. Only being able to recycle PET is a nice start but in practice humans absolutely suck at separating waste (and companies constantly mix plastic types, making it even harder if you really care).<p>I don&#x27;t see any way out other than reduction of plastic use. So far, the entire plastic separation and recycling process is built on lies and deceit to make consumers think they&#x27;re being more environmentally friendly than they really are. I&#x27;d be amazed if this plastic recycling technology of the month will finally chance that.
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amluto超过 2 年前
If this works on a feedstock of mixed, dirty plastics, I can imagine it actually being economical.<p>Imagine throwing a bunch of waste plastic in a reactor. Some is PET. Some is HDPE. Some is polycarbonate. Some is polystyrene. Some is other random polymers. Some is “compostable” material, and some is probably a horrible mix of plant fiber and fluoropolymers. Some is bamboo that got mixed in by accident, and there’s also some bits of food and crayons and other debris in there. Add a mix of enzymes and apply the right temperature, humidity, etc.<p>Out comes a mix of valuable monomers, various contaminants, and the enzymes that survived the process. And a whole lot of unreacted feedstock that simply wasn’t the right feedstock.<p>If you can separate the valuables out of the output mix, then maybe this whole enterprise pays for itself.<p>Otherwise actually obtaining a clean stream of PET to recycle seems potentially challenging.
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0xTJ超过 2 年前
The title here on HN has been butchered into nonsense. The only possibility for &quot;them&quot;, as written, is &quot;enzymes&quot;, which isn&#x27;t the case.
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bglazer超过 2 年前
We really owe it to future generations to figure out effective, energy efficient plastic recycling. This seems to be a big step. The economic barriers are huge here, oil is going to be cheap for a while yet.<p>That said, it is a bit concerning that this could escape into the wild. Plastics are harmful long term but it’s crucial to society that they don’t just start degrading.
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stevage超过 2 年前
There&#x27;s a noun missing from the title<p>&gt;Enzymes that could make it cheaper to recycle ___ than make them from petroleum<p>Should be maybe &quot;plastic bottles and textiles&quot;
kshahkshah超过 2 年前
Almost two decades ago in undergrad a lab I worked in was working on this stuff. It hasn&#x27;t happened yet, really, at scale. I think it will happen, I&#x27;m just wondering if nature is going to beat us to it given what I&#x27;ve heard about bacteria evolving to digest plastics in the wild.
based69超过 2 年前
Still don’t understand why putting plastics into landfills is not considered carbon capture and promoted as more environmentally friendly than risking it being burnt or disposed of in the sea when shipped to developing countries for “recycling”<p>A single valley in some remote area can easily swallow millions of tonnes of plastic<p>Expensive, energy utilizing recycling processes seem less environmentally friendly while also leaving more fossil fuel available for combustion use elsewhere
fredley超过 2 年前
SciFi prompt: A future version of this enzyme that can render plastic down to digestible oils is engineered into gut bacteria.
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BLanen超过 2 年前
I totally haven&#x27;t heard this story for 20 years already. &#x2F;s<p>Such stories were used explicitly by the fossil fuel industry at those concerned with the new plastics back when they were introduced.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dw.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;plastic-recycling-a-myth-as-packaging-explodes&#x2F;a-63622887" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dw.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;plastic-recycling-a-myth-as-packaging-...</a><p>I will still stand by the argument that recycling is impossible. Entropy can&#x27;t be reversed in any way economically, chemically, or socially.
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liminal超过 2 年前
I want this in pill form to remove microplastics from my body! (I realize that&#x27;s not what&#x27;s being developed)
ZeroGravitas超过 2 年前
This is like the regular articles about some new fancy battery chemistry that will make EVs as quick to charge as an ICE.<p>It&#x27;s effectively misinformation, because EVs are already better than ICE and just boring improvements to existing technology will provide improvements over the next fews years and decades.<p>But, a) people hawking a new innovation need to grab eyeballs, and b) people fighting the future have saturated the media with BS to stop progress on EVs, renewables, recycling etc. and those two things combine to become potent misinformation.<p>Recycling is already cheaper than making things from petroleum. It only doesn&#x27;t happen in places where people think they can push the cost onto someone else. They don&#x27;t realise that they are someone else&#x27;s someone else and will end up paying the price they think they have cleverly avoided.<p>Amusingly, the voices that have said &quot;recycling plastic is impossible&quot; have been so succesful, that there&#x27;s now democratic support in many places for just banning many uses of plastics. Which was an unintended impact of these petroleum fueled lies. They&#x27;ve recently switched to attacking plastic bans, by promising that tech like this, will make plastic recyclable in the future.<p>Whether pro or anti recycling, they remain consistently anti-regulation.
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karol超过 2 年前
Won&#x27;t beat entropy. Next!