EU is banning single-use plastic ?

[now is forever]

36 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

giant chunk of Europe is still stuck in Blue and doesn't give a rat's ass about plastics, recycling or plastic straws

yeah i know, it’s still wishful thinking. but maybe some political synergy effect... we‘ll see if it works, these guys let us test it and if they like what they see they just copy it, the same way as we did with them the last 40 years or so... and we still copy some stuff it’s just an exchange. you know how that works in a peer group.

it‘s a tiny progress. tiny tiny

Edited December 19, 2018 by now is forever

[Michael569]

@now is forever its definitelly a step forward and we need more legislations like this but it will probably take a while before key players like Russia are ready to advance their society..at the moment they are somewhere between purple-red-blue + Moscow being very Orange. 

[now is forever]

1 hour ago, Shiva said:

That's a step in the right direction. There might be a simpler solution, however.

I read somewhere that plastic can have different "grades". If you have plastic of the same grade it can easily be recycled.

The problem is that we combine different grades of plastic, e.g. in a coke bottle the wrapper is one grade, the cap is another grade and the bottle itself is again of a different grade.

So, in order to recycle it you first need to separate the bottle and recycle each component individually. But this is way too costly, so nobody does it.

A simple solution would be if the EU regulated the use can combination of different plastic grades. This would make recycling possible and perhaps even offer profitable business opportunities. 

problem about this is that on a communal level there are not equally equipped recicling facilities - in a theoretical model like that you would still need to bring the technology on the same level everywhere in europe that would take years.

but yes with the right waste sorting technology people would not even have to separate waste at home anymore. technology like that exists in a functioning model in the netherlands. (unfortunately i can’t  find the video on that)

a combination would be perfect.

(also banning composite material in packaging... but that would be hard)

Edited December 19, 2018 by now is forever

[now is forever]

1 hour ago, Shiva said:

@now is forever What I mean is that the EU could make a regulation that only same grade plastic products are allowed to enter the EU (in the most radical sense).

This way we don't need any fancy technology, we can do that today.

The problem is that even a simple product like a coke bottle already consists of three different plastic grades, which is completely unnecessary and drastically complicates recycling.

A simple change in regulation can fix this. No need for new technology or change in consumer behaviour. 

nice idea - but very difficult to do in reality as every material has special production conditions. bpa free plastic for example, the one that doesn’t mimikry estrogens, is not really the best one to recycle as it is more on the tougher brittle side of plastic - the material has not just a consistency the consistency is also saying something about it’s processing opportunity and chemical/physical reactions with air and liquids. in the end it’s still a design/engenering problem, for one bootle in a whole it could work, but not on all packaging equally. but i agree that it’s a possibility to ban more plastic than we already do - as there is already controll in that direction for health reasons.

so you would still need to change production behavior and that means also machines.

you know the best plastic is no plastic. i have a very ambivalent hate/love to that material.

Edited December 19, 2018 by now is forever

[Zweistein]

On 19.12.2018 at 10:08 AM, now is forever said:

of course textile recicling is a topic, too. 

@Zweistein you have such a green thumb you would let us go naked.

@now is forever I'm probably just as much of a hippocrite as almost everyone else is  
But yeah, upcycling is becoming hipper and hipper (yeah ) - maybe these can inspire you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2018 by Zweistein

[Zweistein]

On 19.12.2018 at 6:13 PM, Shiva said:

A simple change in regulation can fix this. No need for new technology or change in consumer behaviour. 

Darn, I feel totally triggered

It definitely needs both, changes in regulations and changes in consumer behaviour.
How can people in power make more conscious regulations when they are personally stuck in unconscious and/or less conscious behavior patterns?

[now is forever]

@Zweistein mhhh diy upcicling is nice - but in the end it is just another hobby, it’s a nice starting point though, from orange to green and certainly can be fun - but it’s far away from real upcyicling. it’s a matter of circular production and upcycling/recycling like the cradle to cradle principle. but yeah back packs made of shreddered old bottle yarn or car wheels - stuff like that, there is a lot  trash to get creative.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle-to-cradle_design

Edited December 23, 2018 by now is forever

[Shadowraix]

If this was truly a good thing, we wouldn't even need a ban on plastics, people would just be not using plastic.

But we probably still have many decades before people truly care.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Shadowraix

[brugluiz]

I hope it comes to Brazil soon (but it won't probably happen during my lifetime).

[now is forever]

generally speaking diy material reuse or repurpose is still a really nice form of art  getting people directly involved and i really like handmade tinkered stuff. so diy upcicling courses or maybe zero waste courses and events are some of the best methods to bring people from orange into more green. so if politics and industry are to slow it’s always possible to make people more aware of the topic on a significant concious level. it’s possible to make a buisness out of green upcicling courses or fab labs (also in brazil or any other country) like that. for me the direct contact with material is still the best experience. (maybe not with high explosives or uran, not only for spiritual reasons)

Edited December 23, 2018 by now is forever

[Hellspeed]

Fantastic. 

Because the quality of plastic will maybe increase, similar to 70's-90's? Who knows.