‘Vegan spider silk’ provides sustainable alternative to single-use plastics

I am cool with incinerating and carbon capturing if the Petro-chemical manufacturers pay for it directly or indirectly. The Coca-Cola, Nestle, Procter & Gambles, Unilever etc. need to own up to their sustainability talk.

The externalization of the health and environmental plastic costs needs to stop.

IF you can capture it in the first place. Litter is a huge problem, and it wouldn't be if the stuff just rotted naturally. Well, it'd still be a problem, but less of an ecological disaster.

I see steam pyrolysis followed by land filling to be the recycling method of last resort. It can recover at least few hundred gallons of oil for every ton of plastic.

This method was recently endorsed by Sir Attenborough: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2021/03/25/sir-dav...

This is totally in necessary. It could be in a paper bag or even a bulk-bin.

I think banning the majority of single use packaging would go a long way at reducing our waste.

I would also like to know the answer to this. In Germany certain glass and plastic bottles that work with the deposit system (Pfandsystem) are washed and refilled directly (up to 50 times for glass I think) rather than going through a more complicated recycling process. I would have to imagine this is better than manufacturing a plastic bottle and burning it? When I try to find comparisons for this online it's often comparing a recycling process in which the glass is broken down and remade. If anyone knows I'd love to learn more.

Both of these are already the case in many parts of the US. My home state had refunds on plastic/metal/glass containers for ages, and CA (for instance) has a statewide plastic bag fee that I believe passed in a public referendum years ago. This is still the exception both in the US and Europe, from what I can tell.

It's the same in the UK at the supermarket, but then in the same shop I can buy a packet of chocolates in a plastic bag of their own, with each individual chocolate wrapped.

Same for other goods: I bought a new lamp, it came in a box with styrofoam, plastic wrapping around each individual component, a plastic cover over the plug, temporary plastic clips to hold the cable together.

The bastard material is just everywhere.

So it doesn't matter if they cost 1c, 10c or 1 eur - I am always buying new bags, have nowhere to put the bag when I am going outside. At least I also use them to throw away trash.

All of this is true of where I live in the US, though the 'return single use plastics for money' is fairly specific to beverage containers. And the single use plastic bags are banned outright. Most grocery stores provide paper bags, and charge a fee.

They probably need to bump the fee for bags a bit higher, though. We tried doing the reusable bag thing, but as of yet we haven't successfully built the habit of bringing old bags back to the store, so we just end up buying the paper bags every time. It's something like 5 cents a bag, which is so little that it doesn't inspire.

Any politician that tries to rectify the plastic situation will get voted out because people would experience a reduction in quality of life.

It is the same reason why the solution to reducing carbon emissions has not been enacted worldwide, which is increasing taxes on fossil fuels until consumption goes down (which would also solve the plastic issue).

But again, that will cause short term pain by having to consume less, such as not living in big houses/spread out suburbs, flying and driving to far flung vacations, using large personal vehicles, convenience and cheapness of plastic packaging, etc.

And “made out of recyclable plastic” is a thing, and it works.

What isnt recyclable are mixed plastics, ie consumer plastic. But industrial users (ie folks who have large quantities of the same thing so sorting is cheap) can and do recycle plastic.

People underestimate the enormous lobbying and marketing power that comes with that.

However, the cost of recycling it is generally more than the reclaimed value of the material, especially for mixed recyclables.

So, we have to do one of two things: either subsidize the recycling of plastic (e.g.: tax plastic packaging, send tax money to subsidize conversion), or switch back to segregated bins (downside: consumers put less material in).

Many people have been spreading misinformation that plastic "isn't recyclable." This is not true. In California, 87% of beverage containers are recycled (thanks, bottle bill!).

British Columbia enacted an "Extended Producer Responsibility" (EPR) bill that taxes plastic packaging and uses the funds to centralize and subsidize conversion of material. This resulted in the most sophisticated sortation and recycling plant in North America, located in Delta, BC, where they use laser spectrum analysis to sort plastic, shred and grind it, use high speed cameras and air puffs to sort by color, and then convert it back to usable resin.

This resulted in a 56% recovery rate of all rigid plastics sold in BC. I would argue that 56% needs to improve - it would be good to get over 80% - but plastic has massive CO2 advantages over other materials, such as aluminum or glass, that are incredibly energy intensive, and anything with a 56% recycle rate blatantly disproves the idea that recycling is a myth.

However, without proper public-private partnerships and good regulation, it's very hard to get high recycle rates, and that plagues much of America and other provinces of Canada, where people then throw up their hands and claim it's impossible.

I understand there are costs involved. I'm ok with switchover costs, 1 step back before 2 steps forward.

The future of lithium ion batteries are a great example. Eventually, most material will be recycled, cell production will be carbon neutral, most conflict materials (akin to "blood diamond") will be phased out. I'm ok with temporary negative externalities to get us to that rosy future,

Environmentalism is full of these pointless "little things" which people think add up to "a big thing", but don't. Tin foil. Cling film. Plastic bags. Paper towels. These are all convenient in daily life and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This seriously detracts from the message of real environmentalism.

It's much easier to wag a finger at someone and tell them "you mustn't use plastic bags, they're bad for the environment!" than it is to tell them "don't go on vacation to Hawaii, flying is criminally wasteful".

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagheera_kiplingi

One line leads to a tiny milking station. There, retired surgeons use designer nanopumps to relieve silk gland tensions. The spiders appreciate it and get a tiny block of tofu fly treat afterward.

The spiders who don't want to be milked that particular day can instead enjoy a relaxing day. They other like goes to the relaxation area, full of empty corners ready for cobwebbing and prismed sunbeams that emulate natural variances in brightness. When the surgeons are done with milking, they provide enrichment in the form of RF nanodrones, made from recycled cat toys, to stimulate web strands and act as nontoxic prey substitutes.

Unfortunately accidents do happen, since even the tiniest drone tends to be several orders of magnitude larger than the biggest spider volunteers. Sometimes they exhibit something more akin to a panic reaction than relaxation. Steps are taken to minimize these irregular adverse events, but a balance towards profitability must be enforced.

All in all, like with most vegan products, the quality is much lower but the price can be much higher. It all works out as long as nobody asks too many questions.