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Post by WhutScreenName on Oct 19, 2023 15:04:07 GMT
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Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2023 15:55:09 GMT
I've suggested a process of this nature to make various durable goods out of waste plastic. of course, I don't have the wherewithal to pursue the idea. my biggest thought was to make inserts so road markings could be cast into the road surface instead of painted on the surface.
I did note those tended to shed bits, though - which wouldn't work well for exposed surfaces.
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Post by WhutScreenName on Oct 19, 2023 18:03:35 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal!
I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire?
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Post by GTCGreg on Oct 19, 2023 19:41:03 GMT
I know that injection molded plastic parts can be recycled by simply grinding them up and running the plastic through another injection molding machine to make a new part.
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Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2023 23:26:14 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal! I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire? it would have to be an airless tire, and it would have to actually have a binder to be able to carry weight - of course, that was my thought for the road markings, too. and yes, wear would be a consideration for things like crosswalks. it would be less of a consideration for lane markings that don't see much actual traffic directly on them. there would also be a question of whether the coefficient of friction was significantly different. now I think of it, it might be workable to cast small equipment tires around used plastic. they usually don't have much squish, anyway, and it would be cheaper than casting the whole thing out of fresh rubber. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2023 23:28:30 GMT
I know that injection molded plastic parts can be recycled by simply grinding them up and running the plastic through another injection molding machine to make a new part. yes, my thought was to shred the high temperature plastics, and use low temperature plastics as a filler/binder. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 19, 2023 23:48:23 GMT
nobody has a handy chart for R values of unusual building materials. concrete has a relatively low R value, but it has a lot of thermal mass. this makes it a good material for areas where there are large daily temperature swings. plastic has a lot less thermal mass, so it might be better for somewhere that the temperature is consistently warmer or consistently cooler, because then it isn't holding the walls at the undesired temperature as much.
truth be told, the standard US house is really not so universal as to be optimum in all climate zones, but it's so simple that builders do it where other types of structure would be more efficient. I wonder if it would work to do something similar for non structural framing. they do make a foamed plastic trim board.
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Post by rmc on Oct 20, 2023 8:25:48 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal! I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire? I like the idea of grinding up rubber tires and also several plastics into a fine powder that is later reconstituted into some sort of paste that hardens, putting said paste through a giant "3D printer" thereby building up walls of a living structure as the paste goes from "wet" to cured or dry... whatever. Maybe the powders are also blended with powdered concrete cement ... not sure how the paste is made though. Anyway, some sort of goop that can be built up layer by layer into structures.. Like the 3D printer system proposed for making living structures on the moon using the moon's regolith. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 20, 2023 13:51:22 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal! I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire? I like the idea of grinding up rubber tires and also several plastics into a fine powder that is later reconstituted into some sort of paste that hardens, putting said paste through a giant "3D printer" thereby building up walls of a living structure as the paste goes from "wet" to cured or dry... whatever. Maybe the powders are also blended with powdered concrete cement ... not sure how the paste is made though. Anyway, some sort of goop that can be built up layer by layer into structures.. Like the 3D printer system proposed for making living structures on the moon using the moon's regolith. not sure whether fine or coarse would be better. there's also the matter that plastics and rubber have a degree of compressibility. so that would have to be accounted for in structural materials. I do like the idea of grinding up "forever trash" and using it as bulk, though. |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 20, 2023 17:20:38 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal! I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire? When guitarist Tony Iommi was a teenager, he worked part-time in a sheet metal factory. He was asked to substitute on a piece of equipment he hadn't been trained on, and this resulted in him losing a few fingertips. After being convinced to continue playing, he took a bottle of Fairy brand dish soap, melted it down, and formed the melted plastic into thimbles that would serve as improvised prosthetics until he could get better prosthetics. So that's one possibility, recycling old plastics into new prosthetics if possible. |
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Post by WhutScreenName on Oct 20, 2023 20:19:44 GMT
I feel there are a lot of things that can be done with recycled plastics, the blocks just being 1 of those things. Doing things like that seems to be a no brainer to me. It helps reduce/reuse what would otherwise be waste, it saves the environment (plants and animals), it helps keep nature looking like nature instead of a garbage heap, it can add another layer of profit, it's abundant, and it's clearly versatile. Oh, and as the blocks, I bet the thermal value is probably better then other materials of a similar thickness, meaning the home building application would be ideal! I like the idea of it being built into the roads, but, even concreate and asphalt get worn away by the cars driving on them, I'm guessing this would wear even quicker. BUT, that gives me another idea, I wonder how well it'd work as a tire? When guitarist Tony Iommi was a teenager, he worked part-time in a sheet metal factory. He was asked to substitute on a piece of equipment he hadn't been trained on, and this resulted in him losing a few fingertips. After being convinced to continue playing, he took a bottle of Fairy brand dish soap, melted it down, and formed the melted plastic into thimbles that would serve as improvised prosthetics until he could get better prosthetics. So that's one possibility, recycling old plastics into new prosthetics if possible. I was unaware of this story, but find it very interesting! Thanks for sharing |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 20, 2023 21:08:01 GMT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_IommiWhen guitarist Tony Iommi was a teenager, he worked part-time in a sheet metal factory. He was asked to substitute on a piece of equipment he hadn't been trained on, and this resulted in him losing a few fingertips. After being convinced to continue playing, he took a bottle of Fairy brand dish soap, melted it down, and formed the melted plastic into thimbles that would serve as improvised prosthetics until he could get better prosthetics. So that's one possibility, recycling old plastics into new prosthetics if possible. I was unaware of this story, but find it very interesting! Thanks for sharing Iommi had to use different strings than what most guitarists used back then to compensate for the injury to his playing hand, and had to change how he tuned his guitar to compensate for the use of the different strings. This has sometimes been credited as the source of his distinctive sound, although for obvious reasons he'd rather not the conversation go in that direction. |
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Post by rmc on Oct 21, 2023 6:47:50 GMT
I like the idea of grinding up rubber tires and also several plastics into a fine powder that is later reconstituted into some sort of paste that hardens, putting said paste through a giant "3D printer" thereby building up walls of a living structure as the paste goes from "wet" to cured or dry... whatever. Maybe the powders are also blended with powdered concrete cement ... not sure how the paste is made though. Anyway, some sort of goop that can be built up layer by layer into structures.. Like the 3D printer system proposed for making living structures on the moon using the moon's regolith. not sure whether fine or coarse would be better. there's also the matter that plastics and rubber have a degree of compressibility. so that would have to be accounted for in structural materials. I do like the idea of grinding up "forever trash" and using it as bulk, though. A fine powder of rubber added with harder bits in the correct ratio, along with a goop that hardens well, the better compressibility gets "dealt with" I'd guess... so long as the ratio of compressible bits to hard bit is appropriate and suspended in the right sort of goop matrix that hardens. Experimenting with various pastes might be worthwhile. Vary the ratio of soft to hard bits based upon load baring or non load baring wall situations too. How soft is tire rubber? Some are declared "soft" but aren't able to be indented with a fingernail. That's doesn't mean rock hard, but it isn't marshmallow either. Also, many plastics are also somewhat compressible. Rubber powder could be added to pitch or resin, I suppose. But, toxic gases are a consideration. Now back to your regularly scheduled program... |
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Post by the light works on Oct 21, 2023 13:25:45 GMT
not sure whether fine or coarse would be better. there's also the matter that plastics and rubber have a degree of compressibility. so that would have to be accounted for in structural materials. I do like the idea of grinding up "forever trash" and using it as bulk, though. A fine powder of rubber added with harder bits in the correct ratio, along with a goop that hardens well, the better compressibility gets "dealt with" I'd guess... so long as the ratio of compressible bits to hard bit is appropriate and suspended in the right sort of goop matrix that hardens. Experimenting with various pastes might be worthwhile. Vary the ratio of soft to hard bits based upon load baring or non load baring wall situations too. How soft is tire rubber? Some are declared "soft" but aren't able to be indented with a fingernail. That's doesn't mean rock hard, but it isn't marshmallow either. Also, many plastics are also somewhat compressible. Rubber powder could be added to pitch or resin, I suppose. But, toxic gases are a consideration. Now back to your regularly scheduled program... I'd forgotten sbout compstion and combustion by-products. I had thought about using the softer material for filling in a structural frame. in fact, if you made your machine with two extruders, you could still do it with one machine, and encapsulate the softer blended mix inside the rigid structural mix. |
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