Chemistry to Our Rescue?Angeline Upchurch
The article is about how groups of chemists are trying to use chemistry to help with the plastic problem. Most plastics are not recyclable. They said that “Grocery bags and shrink wrap are too flimsy, prone to getting tangled up with other materials on a conveyor belt. The polypropylene in yogurt cups and other items doesn’t usually get recycled either; recycling a hodgepodge of polypropylene produces a dark, smelly plastic that few manufacturers will use.” Most of the plastics that are not recyclable make up a quarter of the world's plastic trash. While trying to reuse plastic can be a good thing but also there are plastics that can’t be reused and a lot of times when plastic is broken and we use it as part of something else it can be very weak/brittle and not as usable.There are system destinations for recyclable materials with people and machines who do the shorting and this system works good for simpler items like soda bottles and milk jugs but not complex items like deodorant containers where the different parts like the cap are made out of different material. Chemists like Huber and his colleagues are developing a strategy to deal with complex mixtures of plastics and produce liquid solvents that dissolve individual plastic components. You have to be careful that the solvents only dissolve one kind of plastic at a time. A lot of what is holding us back is the cost and the time that a lot of companies and manufacturers just don’t want to do and so finding a cheap effective way is important.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/chemistry-recycling-plastic-landfills-trash-materials
Do you think that Chemists can find a effective/cheap solution to the world's plastic problem
Do you think the cost right now is worth it to make companies decrease their plastic waste?
Should we have rules to not have different plastics on one item?
Should governments get involved and fund these researches?
I think there is a way to find a cheap solution given that it is done for the good of change and not business, the cost is not good however for these recycled plastics as it is cheaper to make new and companies will usually do what's best for the money. And we should have more rules on Plastics as they are one of the biggest waste issues the world faces each day.
ReplyDelete-Tyler A.
As technology and research improves it is possible that there will be a cost-effective solution to help the plastic problem. Currently, if possible companies should attempt to decrease plastic waste, however, there would have to be an analysis on the costs and impact on the company on the amount plastic waste is decreased. It is possible to make a change by creating regulations on what plastics can be used on an item. Government should fund this research as pollution is a major problem that needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteCarissa Bersche
I think the governments should fund these researches and actively promote people to go into the researches. I think their needs to be regulation on having different plastics on a single item and their needs to be more done to try to have items have only one kind of plastic.
ReplyDeleteThe cost is worth to decrease the plastic waste. I think that chemists can find a effective solution if they have the funding and support.
-Angeline Upchurch
I would say it is possible that chemists can find a cost effective solution. At this point, I think the cost is worth it for big companies to decrease their plastic waste. After all, big corporations play a big part into contributing to climate change and waste production. It goes back to the idea of social responsibility. We only get one planet and we are running out of time before we have even more irreversible effects, so the cost is definitely worth it.
ReplyDeleteTrinity Mathis
The government should intervene and help fund chemists' efforts to find cheap ways to recycle plastic. I'm not sure how that would happen because a lot of people are upset about the government's environment plans (rejoining Paris agreement, reducing fracking, etc.) I think regulation set by the EPA to not use certain plastic together in products like deodorant containers would be a good start to this issue.
ReplyDelete-Ilori T
I think that chemists can come up with a solution to decrease or resolve plastic waste. If certain plastics are too flimsy to be recycled, maybe chemists can use these new liquid solvents to melt them down and add some substance to the melted plastic that will reinforce it when it's solid. The cost is definitely worth the end result because if we don't take the plastic waste issue more seriously, there is a pretty solid chance that the earth will turn into a wasteland and our future generations will be breathing through gas masks and walking around in hazmat suits. -Shirin Saha
ReplyDeleteI think that there definitely is a way for chemist to find an effective or cheaper solution to the world plastic problem but its definitely gonna take time and compromise. I think that a lot of problems could be solved but a major blocker is people not willing for change to happen; whether is big companies not wanting to lose money even if it mean saving lives and the planet, or just normal people not willing to adapt and c=make small changes to to their lifestyles such as recycling more.-Raquel Morgens
ReplyDelete