What does it take to recycle plastic at home?
 

Somewhere I read the comment that in Japan there are countertop boxes people can use to break down plastic into petroleum, but I cannot find anything about that.

Everyone says "Don't use plastic! It clogs our waterways and landfills and we end up ingesting it!"
"Glass isn't cost-effective to recycle because Americans are lazy!"
"Glass isn't cost-effective to recycle! Just throw it away!"

I know where to recycle it. I have a bin of bottles and jars in the garage and I will recycle them the next time I see a client in the next town (and have time), but supposedly everyone else intentionally buys goods in heavier and bulkier containers, resulting in heavier and bulkier trash?

I never hear of garbagemen being cut by glass, while plastic breaks down into microplastics, and then plants, animals, and people ingest them.

A roommate said "Sometimes recycling takes more resources" so we should never recycle?!

My roommates were lazy.

I posted about that, but just found another thread where RedPoint said that Americans are lazy.

We properly recycle, but if our neighbors use their recycling bin as another garbage can, the city may take everything to the dump.

The city may do that anyway.

Plastic recycling isn't necessarily cost-effective to recycle anymore because China isn't buying it anymore--it caused too many health problems even for them!

Some smaller countries are trying to take over, but I cannot imagine that they can handle as much as China did, nor do I expect them to continue forever.

So, as I asked, what does it take to recycle plastic at home?

https://duckduckgo.com/i/e66f3028.png

Look for this symbol and sort it out. The rest can be ground up and used for a paving amendment or something.

The HDPE softens at 375°. When it's the consistency of bubble gum (wear gloves) in can be formed, extruded, machined, drilled & tapped, etc. Press molds work well, or a rolling pin on side rails.

Best answer find a [best] use for it.

Somewhere I saw videos of people using plastic bottles as 3d printer filament. Maybe you can make something small, but incredibly useful.

Can you make enough small, but incredibly useful things to keep up with your plastic use?

We use a lot of plastic!

I thought that maybe you could 3d print an upper grill block that would look better than insulation foam, but Daox wrote: "3d printing grill blocks is totally doable, but not very practical I think." DIY: Coroplast grill block

I want to make my own phone holders, both for home and for my car.

Maybe others would want them, too.

I bought this a few months ago for $30:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1682965813

It holds and charges my phone. I think that it is supposed to automatically close when I turn on the engine and open when I turn off the engine, but it doesn't always do either, and it often opens if I touch my phone, so I need to grab the buttons behind my phone, and sometimes it doesn't close.

Cool cool, let me just turn off my car really quickly.

I can close it manually, but is that likely to damage it?

Made in China, so yes.

Of course, now that I have it I keep thinking that having built-in bluetooth would be even better.

I asked a friend if any car phone holders had bluetooth and she said "Not all of them!"
"Remind me to never ask you a question again."
I only saw two car phone holders that charge and neither had bluetooth, so let me just Frankenstein some.

It doesn't charge 100% of the time, either, so not only does neither function function properly, my phone charger didn't come with a phone charger!

I ordered one for almost $30, but it is 30w, while this is only 10w, but this way I can charge my iPad at the same time, or potentially my laptop.

I wish that I had thought to grab my last phone holder from my first Camry. The next time I talked to the other guy's insurance I asked about it and they said they already hauled the car to Phoenix.

I didn't approve that!

I cannot find it now, but it had a design like this:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1682965675

Weird. It looks like my first attachment timed out even though I have another Ecomodder page refreshing automatically to keep me logged in.

It still shows up, but was no longer attached, so I reattached it.

Anyway, the weight of my phone on my old holder caused the sides to come in, so it didn't need buttons and servos, and I miss it.

I posted about a company that will print circuits, so maybe I could go that route, but I certainly wouldn't want to start with anything so complex.

That looks like what I found, although I still think The King of Random had the best video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRy2sD_k57g I just wanted to break up my post because it was getting long.

The way he does it one could do this with just a razor blade and a 2x2.

I watched a few videos with more complicated setups, although they wound the filament onto spools--although one guy immediately unwound it.

The thing is, I don't need to tell you how lightweight bottles are, but I am drinking some soda right now--I poured two 2L bottles into my 1 gallon Nalgene bottle with some electrolytes in the bottom.

How much does an empty 2L bottle weigh, an ounce or two?
Google gives varying answers around 40-50g.
DDG says 0.000198 freebeards.

Hey freebeard, I need you to find 5,000 2L bottles and a big balance.
Do you know where to find a teeter totter? :)

My cat acid scale says 45g so we will go with that.

How much does a car phone mount weigh?

I don't have any idea and I doubt that anyone weighs theirs.

I am not weighing mine, it isn't the one that I want!

If I made phone mounts and charged a small amount of profit on top of the cost to run a 3d printer--plus a small amount to recover the cost to buy a 3d printer I would be scavenging plastic for free.

For the planet?! :D

Phone holders are an existing market and people regularly pay $10-20 for them, so that seems like a good option.

However, I keep thinking that the best use for recycled plastic would be actual building blocks, and once I had enough I could build another shed! :D

Hey!

Hey!

Could I print clear coroplast?! :D

I don't know that 12"x12" sheets would be ideal, but it would be easy to make them snap together.

No, I will not 3d-print a dome!

Bad freebeard!

Bad!

You are also obsessed with hemp, man!

What about that?!

I see stuff about 3d printing with it, but I am not seeing much that seems easily-explained.

I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jEdQeTrB0 So, companies are making 3d filament from hemp. I see posts about 3d printing hempcrete, but how the heck do you do that?!

We have discussed hempcrete building blocks before and that would be an interesting thing to DIY--and explain, but I already have a discussion about that.

I throw away most plastic. Easy to rinse out, larger plastic containers that are recyclable I will recycle.

Metal is important to recycle. I'm indifferent about cardboard, but since I get so much of it I need to use the larger recycle bin for that instead of throw it away. I recycle glass mainly to keep shards out of the landfill, and the fact that it never breaks down into something useful like methane.

I'm not your gopher.

You'd want to only print the fiddly bits.

The 'obsession' is to obfuscate my real obsession: dancing girls

Printable hempcrete is delivered as a paste instead of a filament.

Let's pin 3d-printing hempcrete.

Plastic sheds are PVC or HDPE.

Printing panels would be curious. If I made one that is a 10' cube I would need 600 foot-square panels, but how thick would they need to be to support their own weight?

This is less than 8' tall and weighs 355 pounds, but it says the frame is wood, although it is clearly metal: WoodBridge Plus 10 ft. x 10 ft. Vinyl Outdoor Garden Storage Shed

However, you know me, I want everything! :D

I want something that is flame-resistant and has insulation!

Rigid foam board?

How do I make it flame-resistant?

I could coat it.

Okay. In theory I could make a $1,500 shed by turning a couple thousand 2L bottles into filament, 3d printing 600 panels, using a wooden or metal frame, insulation, and fire-resistance coating.

I am sure that I would also need UV treatment that actually works, unlike the $60 bottle I used.

Growing my own hemp sounds better and better.

Phone holders, then?

I found these guys and they really like plastic milk caps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmgYUJXCyM Google doesn't want me to know how much milk caps weigh! [wraps head in tin foil]

Mom had one milk cap by the sink and a total of 5 half-gallon milk jugs in the refrigerator.

She buys one each week whether or not I use any.

Whether or not I have used any in the past 5 weeks.

She and my brother are lactose-intolerant.

Six milk caps weigh 13 grams, so I would need 454 milk caps for one pound.

They say they can use anything with this logo on it:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1682970315

Good Housekeeping says: Exactly What Every Plastic Recycling Symbol Really Means

They really like melting down milk jugs, so that makes sense.

I tried to dry out the cleanest empty milk jug and a paper towel didn't do much.

I put some rice in there, but there was more milk residue than I realized (the plastic is whitish!) so I cut it open, which is what they do, and it took altogether too much water, paper towels, and time to clean one half-gallon milk jug, which only weighed 46g, but I need 9.86 of those per pound (with the cap.

When I clean things I tend to wash them into a bucket and later use that grey water, so I can recover that, and I wouldn't need paper towels if I hung up pieces of plastic bottles on clothes lines?!

Or I could leave them upside-down on a dish rack.

Those Australian brothers use a can, a dowel, and tons of bottle caps to make a mallet. They often use a panini press and and a toaster oven, both from a thrift store, and either Teflon baking sheets (3/$11 on Amazon) or silicone ones (2/$19) and silicone oven gloves ($8 on Amazon)

I don't know what size presses they used, but they looked wider than the cheaper ones that I am seeing. I don't know how much Goodwill would charge for a press like this Cuisinart that Walmart sells for $58, and Google says it uses 1,800w.

WhatBuy says that electricity costs 13¢ per kilowatt hour, so if I spent an hour melting milk caps it would cost 23.4¢.

WhatBuy also says "The cheapest rate can be found in North Dakota, at $0.1 per kWh."

I don't remember how much I paid for the toaster oven I bought the Alaskans, but I doubt it was more than $10-20, and of course, Google says that the Black & Decker toaster oven available at Walmart for $40, with more features than just toasting, which would be irrelevant for maintaining plastic melted, is also 1,800w, so almost 50¢ per hour.

The Australians say that at these low heats HDPE doesn't release fumes.

Of course, the question is: How much is my time worth.

I don't know, but how long have I spent posting about recycling plastic at home?

The time stamp on #1 is 2:28 before my last post, so I have probably spent 3 hours posting, on top of watching 10-20 videos.I want to recycle everything, but it just isn't feasible, and if I wanted to recycle plastic into something useful, I really think that it would make more sense to pay schoolkids $5-10 an hour to rinse and dry plastic containers for an hour or two a day.

If I lived in southern Arizona I could probably drive a van across the border and pay adults $5-10 an hour.I found my original comment more entertaining than your response.

You can do better.

According to Pakistani-managed AI, that video can be summarized asfreebeard oh freebeard, the most freebeardly freebeard to ever freebeard, please tell me what to do with this information, for I am ignorant of the way of the freebeard, and I fear that I have consumed too much diet cola!

Not a simulpost, off by one minute. :(
Penny for your thoughts?
The outer bound for this thread is 2.5 hours.

The time was well spent following up the suggestion I made at #2.

Compare https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rolling+clay&ia=web. Potters use slab and coil construction techniques that transfer to HDPE.

The thing about domes is you can cover an acre with toothpicks. So if you make four or five ...or six forms you could make hexagonal jigsaw puzzle pieces of any managable size.

I thought one should never trust a Pakistani [front for the AI Overlords]. Here's your proof, the lyrics are incidental.
Oh, please. The video was offered up to me on the Youtube home page, because I've trained it on a diet of Mother's Basement and Terran Space Academy.

I referred to the hemp paste.

By the way, I measured one of the 2.5-gallon buckets the Safeway bakery gave me for free, and with lid it weighs 495g, so in theory I could melt one and make something weighing over one pound, but even if I modified a panini press to work like a press for objects up to 1' tall, how long would it take to melt a bucket?

I don't know, but it still sounds like less work than melting hundreds of milk caps!

I could use a jig saw over a work bench, cut off the top and bottom, and cut the sides in half, then just leave them and the dust I brush off my work bench until they are nice and melty.

They made plastic boards resembling 2x4s as well as more like 2x2s from which they made a pallet and a park bench, but this doesn't seem nearly as strong as pine, which isn't a great standard.

They made a big mold--they use lots of plywood for molds, but I guess that is okay if they use them many times.

They put a coat of varnish on it and they made a press, but only looks about 18" square, although in theory they could make a version specifically for 2x4s, but that much plastic, in that orientation, required excessive handling, and this entire process (including the research), requires excessive time and energy. Pallet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZKtfT6y0v8 Small coffee table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnVAQqkdcQ Park bench: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGc-Z7TtiVg Mud kitchen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3g4W7w4CQ Cutting board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx2B55YG4SY In the first video I shared they made a tablesaw push stick. If one made two thinner ones and added 2 small hinges they could make a book stand.

How well could you 3d-print hinges?

Maybe large plastic hinges would work as well as small metal ones.

Or you could 3d-print the entire thing.

I would maybe pay $200 for a bench--if I wanted a bench--and $100 for that small table, so I don't see anything that would be worth my time even if my neighbors brought over their clean used plastics.

I have seen greenhouses built from empty plastic bottles, but those are supposed to off-gas in the sun, which sounds terrible.

Those brothers keep saying their plastic is UV-stable, so I really want to know more about that.

Proto Plastics say that Acrylic, Polycarbonate, HDPE, Polyetherimide, and Polyphenylene Sulfide are UV-resistant.

This guy 3d-printed a mini greenhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkotuaGKC8M freebeard, this is your time to shine! You were born for this moment! Your entire life you have trained for this!

How do I 3d-print a geodesic greenhouse?

I need a nap. Let's see what I have in an album:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...make-house.png

It's called print-in-place.

www.thingiverse.com/search?q=print-in-place+hinge&page=1&type=things&sort=relevant

Me? Personally? My bed isn't level.

Step 1: 3d-print a conex.
Step 2: Repeat.
Step 3: 3d-print a pole.
Step 4: ????
Step 5: Profit?!

I am not seeing any profit!

However, do you know what is one plastic-based product with a low density is?

Clothing.Now I need a nap! From Plastic Bottles to Soft TeesI never watched "Friends," but as far as I can tell, Monica never washed bottles on-screen, she was just obsessive-compulsive.

For larger projects the Australian brothers use industrial shredders, extruders, and rectangular steel tubing, which would certainly be easier, but what an initial investment!

Also, the extruder is so hot they need to wear respirators.

Personally, I would rather build an enclosure around the extruder with HEPA filters.

Anyway, tossing 7 large plastic bottles into a shredder, and extruding that into yarn, and then knitting that into cloth seems like even more work, but still, turning 7 large bottles into a $20 shirt sounds like a better ROI than anything else I have mentioned.

I don't see anyone doing this in their garage, though.

How do I summon a Plastic Rumpelstiltskin?

You're getting nearer to my argument, that it doesn't make sense for millions of people to be recycling experts and clean and sort the recyclables, only to have that effort thwarted by those who don't sort or clean their recyclables.

It should all be a single container, a single truck that comes through the neighborhood (maybe yard debris still needs to be a separate container), and trained professionals with proper equipment and robots sorts through everything and cleans it.

I want to recycle everything once we figure out how to automate most everything and power those things with nearly free energy. You don't burn 100 gallons of fuel to recover 80 gallons worth of fuel equivalency. The economics always needs to make sense, otherwise it's both a waste of money and detrimental to our natural resources.

Mock me and expect more help? I'm big enough for that.

I came back to share this: Jigsaw puzzle generator
https://draradech.github.io/jigsaw/jigsaw-hex-small.png

Set jitter to zero and you should get repeatable shapes. They also do rectangles.

Your argument has always been that we should pay people as little as possible to sort it and we always point out that paper and cardboard get ruined that way.

Here is an NPR article about why China stopped buying our recyclables, which you clearly dismissed:That doesn't work for non-ferrous metals!How often do you see a cardboard carton, for milk, nectar, broth, etc., and their is foil and\or plastic bonded to it?They already stopped buying our recyclables?Where Will Your Plastic Trash Go Now That China Doesn't Want It?

Don't like NPR?
"`[A] lot of the plastic China received in recent years was poor quality, and it became difficult to turn a profit.'” Fox News: Thanks to China, over 100 million metric tons of plastic waste will soon have nowhere to go

That was an extremely short article. This one is slightly longer, but neither has many details, and it took at least 5 tries to load this and spam Esc before Fox News cleared the page: Fox News: Recycling programs seen as a waste in many communities because of high costs, inefficiencies That seems to just say "Throw away everything! It is cheaper!

Unfortunately, I have spent all day on this, and haven't found any solutions.

Undoubtedly I had better ways of spending my time, but I am still waiting on at least one letter of recommendation. Each person who agreed to submit one for me simply needs to copy and paste--one previously wrote a LoR, which I copied and pasted into an e-mail.

At least one on-line program also has a deadline today, so I am going to see what time they cut us off and what other requirements they have.

At what point did I mock you? :)

I asked you to find a more humorous response! :)

There have been sixteen posts before this one.

To which idea is that a response? :)

Now my head hurts.

The definition of waste is something that isn't valuable enough for someone to invest the resources to obtain it.

It's not clear to me that cardboard is anything but waste, but fortunately a "renewable" resource.

I always argue that employers should pay as little as possible to achieve the competent results they desire. Likewise, individuals should maximize the return on their labor which involves becoming highly competent. Those 2 competing interests maximize efficiency which is the same thing as maximizing value for all involved in an economic system.

People claim that banks should offer savings account with large returns, like 5%, to benefit people [who aren't smart enough to invest].

Right now CIT Bank is offering 4.75% and that is the single-highest rate I can find.

I have $9,000 in the bank and at some point I should really move it into a bank that provides a higher interest rate, but my offer still stands to Mom: Make the arrangements so that my brother and I inherit her house and I will help her pay off her remaining mortgage.

Right now she owes $18,000 and her rate is over 6%, but that will compound for years.

Of course, I should get around to doing things instead of waiting for her to do things, but I have so many things to do!

Like research ways to save the world when every time I conclude that we are doomed.

This indicates the average profit margin for a bank is around 4%: What Net Interest Margin Is Typical for a Bank?

The last page I read said that on-line banks usually offer much better rates than brick-and-mortar ones, which don't feel the need to compete for business.

I don't have any idea if banks could offer 5% profitably.

Many people don't care about profits, but it doesn't benefit anyone if banks go out of business.

People always make claims that the minimum wage should be $15-30 and I ask "Why not $50 an hour so someone working the minimum wage at McDonald's makes $100,000 annually?"

I am sure that some would agree with that, but since the average profit margin in the food industry is 5%, that would involve prohibitively-expensive Big Macs--or more automation.

When I posted about recycling glass there was a machine that would identify types of glass, labels, and bottle caps, and sort them using gusts of air.

Maybe we can finally recycle once we have sufficiently-advanced robotics (which resembles magic).

At some point I plan on asking ChatGPT about this, but I have been too busy with my own ideas and responding to the two of you.

I mentioned health problems from workers sorting plastic and didn't find anything with those specific articles.

I haven't specifically looked for it, but guess who can't get sick?

Robots.

They also don't give you attitude, strike, etc., although my devices never seem to work right, so maybe the android constructors in Star Wars were correct in designing pain sensors.

For the on-line program application due today:It seems like every SLP program has a picture of a lady pointing at her mouth.

In 8 years I have never simply pointed out my mouth and I have always wondered what these pictures were supposed to represent.

"No no, you need to talk with your mouth!"
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1682983524

I am guessing the S she is holding has something to do with it, but usually their mouths are open.

That rate is normal now, but it should have been refinanced long ago, like 2012... or more recently, 2 years ago.

You don't want to pay off a mortgage, you want to lock in a very low rate and make payments for 30 years. Then you want a high enough income that itemizing the interest on taxes returns more than the standard deduction.

We have discussed the minimum balance required to refinance before.

I tried to look up information, but everything wants all of my personal information.

I gave freebeard's and it gave me Linux or something.

You always want to maximize your income! :)

Coal furnace.

I didn't read the entire thread.
Here is my beef anyway, only thing in any real quantity today that is truly recycled, is a beer can, most everything else is really just extended utilization before it finds the local landfill.

Cash out refi. Invest the extra cash in an investment vehicle that outperforms the ~3% interest rate.

I paid $55 to apply to an on-line program.
It required a 2-3-page essay.
Mine was almost 3 pages--with Microsoft's default space between paragraphs.
I really hope that my letters of recommendation said as many nice things about me as I did!
The next deadline is the 15th.
I will start that after I take my brother for a walk.
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1683000209

The Australians made 64,000 plastic beads
 

They needed to make new molds because these are smaller than the beads they have made before and the beads grow on trees that use much more plastic than the beads themselves, so it seems like they could have made the trees smaller, and at least saved one step.

They needed to snip each side of the tiny beads and it took 4 people days to complete the order, which fit in a small tub, while the trees covered their workbench.

Why didn't they shred the trees as soon as there was enough for a batch?

They collected it for their most popular color, Leftover.

Actually, they call it Nebula: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qe2A9Vs7mc

How do I 3d-print an iPhone case with built-in bluetooth earbuds?
 

Nokia thought it was a good idea.

DankPod's fans insisted he bought it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhtCzlXPjy0 Buy a decent 3d printer, a refurbished iPhone, and a good set of bluetooth earbuds.

Take apart the charging case and design an iPhone case that integrates the earbud case guts and charges both the iPhone and earbuds with the charging cable.

I could make it USB-C! :D

Maybe I could break even! :D

The best price I see for a new iPhone is $875, while the cheapest one on Back Market is $635.

You'll spend that much on the 3D printer. What about a paste of superglue and baking soda?

The latest Pixel 7 Android phone was $287 several times recently. People that spend more than $300 on a phone is crazy.

Cause and effect? People are crazy, so they spend the $900?

I still say that Apple could sell a ton of cars if they just put their logo on them

[deep narrator voice]Imagine a world where Apple sells 10 vehicles, each a rebranded vehicle made by a different manufacturer.

Well Volkswagen just ceded the field:

Apple's problem is finding a new market big enough for their needs. Aerospace? Robots? Someone is there ahead of them.

I'm short on Apple for the reasons SA mentions.

Once AI becomes robust, 1 button for dummies will still seem too complicated.

I scrolled up through the posts and can't see who SA is. :confused:

Not interested in the Apple Watch becaus eit is a Tim [Somebody] product. But I was thinking about the hacker/terrorist watch the Casio F-91W (and the mods like filling it with mineral oil). I see that They ahve announced an interesting one.

The thing that got my attention was it analyzing sleep patterns. There's noone around to tell me if I snore.

Scott Adams

I had a quirky cheap "fitness" band back in the day that was very accurate at sleep analysis. It used impedance to measure galvanic skin response and an accelerometer for motion detection.

https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/...4427600_sd.jpg

If you don't mind China having all your info, I've got several Mii Band products laying around. Course, you could always use a burner email account. I like that it goes a month between needing to be charged, and I've had many compliments on how it looked.

I keep telling my wife I don't snore, as I've never heard it before.

I took a sleep test and they informed me that my sleep apnea is very mild, not requiring me to hook up to a ventilator every night. Doc prescribed a "wedge" for my back that would have me sleep slightly inclined.

I don't think most fitness bands can diagnose sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. Maybe one with a SpO2 sensor could help diagnose if sleep apnea is causing O2 sat to periodically drop, but I'm just speculating.

The Casio F-91W is $13 while the new one is $300. That will probably drive the decision, at least to find out if I'd even wear it.

That symbol has an interesting history. The chemical industry lobbied for laws requiring a recycling symbol on all plastic containers. Not so make it easy to recycle or because it could even be recycled but instead to give the people the idea that plastic is being recycled so they can feel good about using it. Just throw anything with a recycling symbol into the bin and boom - you as the consumer have done your part and that plastic will be recycled and return to you as new plastic. Of course that was not true - less than 10% of plastic is recycled and most plastic cannot be economically recycles but the symbol makes the customer feel OK about buying plastic.


However, even with plastics that can be easily recycled like HDPE it isn't just about the type of plastic - the shape also matters. What can and cannot be recycled depends on the recycling center in your area. Both the machines they use and the contracts they have to buy or at least take the collected material.

For example - in my area we can recycle HDPE containers and tubs but not the lids. The reason is because lids are flat and the machines don't pick them out so they continue on through the sort and end up baled with the paper. Same with cups smaller than 6 oz as they are too small to be machine sorted.


That is basically what is happening today except homeowners are asked to discard the bulk of the trash before that sort starts. I work next to a recycling center and the trucks dump into a big pile, that material goes on to a belt and then machines and humans sort.

My neighbors recycle bin blew over and spilled everything across his yard. I picked it all up and put it back into the bin, but it was mostly garbage. Wrappers, tiny scraps of paper, lids, styrofoam, etc.

He's a smart guy, so just imagine what all the idiots are doing.

He is doing exactly what the plastics industry spent millions of dollars teaching him to do.