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   Ars Technica (arstechnica@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 13:08:08 JST Ars Technica

   Vaporizing plastics recycles them into nothing but gas

   Polypropylene and polyethylene can be broken down simultaneously.

   https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/vaporizing-plastics-recycles-them-into-nothing-but-gas/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

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     Dan Neuman (dan613@ottawa.place)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 13:08:07 JST Dan Neuman

     in reply to

     @arstechnica Vaporizing plastic sounds trivial, just add enough heat. But in this case the plastic polymers were selectively broken down into useful gases that can be reused in the plastics industry to make high quality "virgin" plastic. So this sounds like a big deal.

     clacke likes this.
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     Excessive Minimalism (excess@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 13:08:13 JST Excessive Minimalism

     in reply to

     @arstechnica
     "Another test involved introducing different plastics, such as PET and PVC, to polypropylene and polyethylene to see if that would make a difference. These did lower the yield significantly. If this approach is going to be successful, then all but the slightest traces of contaminants will have to be removed from polypropylene and polyethylene products before they are recycled."

     So it's as impractical as every other recycling method but also this one uses a lot more energy?

     🤔

     clacke likes this.
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     Avarna 💫 (avarna@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 13:08:15 JST Avarna 💫

     in reply to

     @arstechnica … what gas?

     clacke likes this.