 The 16-year-old from Waterloo, Ontario, as part of a science fair project, figured out a way to break down the polymers in plastic bags—compounds that can last for over 1,000 years—in about three months. Comments
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So...are we going to be putting the bags in the recycling bin or the compost bag?
Cool, though its too bad we can't reuse the plastic in the bags.
Plastic bags are recycleable. Unfortunately, not every city recycles them, though. Ultimately, it's better to just bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store so you don't have to use plastic at all.
Now it isn't entirely useful because you can only recycle so much plastic before the structure breaks down and can't be use. This could be use to speed up the process and then finally eliminate the plastic.
Cool, though its too bad we can't reuse the plastic in the bags.
Plastic bags are recycleable. Unfortunately, not every city recycles them, though. Ultimately, it's better to just bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store so you don't have to use plastic at all.
So this is only good for those already IN the landfill? I mean, we use cloth bags and boxes for shopping, and at worst, paper bags. We could just get rid of them
Interesting project, but I see a problem. If a garbage bag is thrown into a landfill, you would have to dig it out or heat up the whole landfill. Very inefficient. And if you are able to collect them, then you are better off recycling them. There are plastics made from derivatives of plants that will degrade in relatively short amounts of time.
Now it isn't entirely useful because you can only recycle so much plastic before the structure breaks down and can't be use. This could be use to speed up the process and then finally eliminate the plastic.
I think the heating up was just to speed up the process for the science fair.