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Showing posts with label Plastic Bottles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plastic Bottles. Show all posts

4.01.2011

Producing Oil at $45 a Barrel from Mixed Waste Plastics

 This some of the best news I've heard about recycling plastics.  Posting was
cross posted from-  http://alfin2300.blogspot.com/

Oregon company Agilyx has raised $22 million in new operating cash from high profile investors including Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, venture capital firm Chrystalix, and corporate investors Waste Management and Total Energy Ventures International. Agilyx has developed a system of rapid pyrolytic treatment of mixed and contaminated plastics into pure petroleum oil -- which it says it can produce at about $45 a barrel.
The company has developed a multi-step process which it says can convert about ten pounds of mixed plastics into one gallon of crude oil.

To make oil, it heats plastics to the point where they turn into a gas. There is then a condensing stage, which converts the gas back into a liquid and removes impurities.

Agilyx is now operating a demonstration plant, which is selling oil to a refiner, and intends to sell its equipment to plastic handlers and recyclers which deal with large volumes. The synthetic crude oil can be refined on site or shipped to standard refiners and the net carbon footprint from its technology is favorable, according to the company.

...The technology can produce oil at about $45 a barrel, Brian Wawro from Chrysalix told the Portland Business Journal. _CNET

article continues at:  http://alfin2300.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

11.05.2010

Plastic Bottle Recycling Symbols

Plastic Bottle Recycling Symbols- supplied by: Packaging Graphics


The Plastic Bottle Material Code System was designed to be easy to read at a glance and distinguishable from any other marking on the bottom of a container. The symbol consists of a triangle formed by three "chasing arrows", with a specific number in the center that indicates the plastic resin from which the bottle is made.

Here are several of the most popular file formats including AutoCad® and Adobe® formats for the plastic resin symbols. These are high quality bitmap and vector formats that may be suitable for most art, tracing and machining needs. By acquiring this art you agree to the disclaimer below.



File types available:
(Click file name, each file contains all 7 symbols)



recycle-resin-logos.ai (456k)
recycle-resin-logos.dxf (947k)
recycle-resin-logos.sitx (104k Sit)
recycle-resin-logos.pdf (894k)
recycle-resin-logos.tif (722k Zip)
recycle-resin-logos-lr.zip (68k)


You may also right-click on the recycle images below and choose 'save picture as' .

PETE plastic bottle HDPE plastic bottles Polyvinyl Chloride plastic bottle LDPE plastic bottles
Polypropylene plastic bottle Polystyrene plastic bottle Other plastic bottle  

For additional usage information on plastic packaging resins visit the American Plastics Council web site. More on recycling symbols may be found at recyclelogos.org.
Disclaimer: Packaging Graphics Co. makes no warranty, express or implied, respecting the accuracy or completeness of the information provided herein including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose. Packaging Graphics Co. shall not be responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages, damages from loss of use or profits, or cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, in contract, tort or otherwise arising out of goods or in connection with the information contained herein.



Plastic Packaging Recycling Codes and Typical Plastic Properties
Polyethylene Terephthalate
(PET)
High Density Polyethylene
(HDPE)
Polyvinyl Chloride
(PVC)
Low Density Polyethylene
(LDPE)
Polypropylene
(PP)
Polystyrene
(PS)
Other Plastics
Properties
PETE HDPE PVC LDPE PP PS Others
Clarity Clear Translucent Clear Translucent Translucent Clear Plastic ID Code "7" is for other plastics
Moisture Barrier Fair to Good Good to Excellent Fair Good Good to Excellent Poor to Fair
Oxygen Barrier Good Poor Good Poor Poor Fair
Max. Temperature 120F 145F 140F 120F 165F 150F
Rigidity Moderate to High Moderate Moderate to High Low Moderate to High Moderate to High
Resistance to Impact Good to Excellent Good to Excellent Fair to Good Excellent Poor to Good Poor to Good
Resistance to Heat Poor to fair Good Poor to Fair Fair Good Fair
Resistance to Cold Good Excellent Fair Excellent Poor to Fair Poor
Resistance to Sunlight Good Fair Poor to Good Fair Fair Poor to Fair
For additional usage information on plastic packaging resins visit the American Plastics Council web site.


********************
Recycling Symbols
may be downloaded here:


********************
Packaging Graphics Co. makes no warranty, express or implied, respecting the accuracy or completeness of the information provided herein including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose. Packaging Graphics Co. shall not be responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages, damages from loss of use or profits, or cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, in contract, tort or otherwise arising out of goods or in connection with the information contained herein.



Packaging Graphics
5732 Milentz Avenue • St. Louis, MO 63109
314-457-9095



--
Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com

11.01.2010

Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

 update to the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

A HUGE CROWD FUNDED MACHINE IS ABOUT TO START CLEANING UP THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com/2018/05/crowd-fund-cleanup-great-pacific-ocean.html

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

A swirling sea of plastic bags, bottles and other debris is growing in the North Pacific, and now another one has been found in the Atlantic. But how did they get there? And is there anything we can do to clean them up?
Not all garbage ends up at the dump. A river, sewer or beach can't catch everything the rain washes away, either. In fact, Earth's largest landfill isn't on land at all.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches for hundreds of miles across the North Pacific Ocean, forming a nebulous, floating junk yard on the high seas. It's the poster child for a worldwide problem: plastic that begins in human hands yet ends up in the ocean, often inside animals' stomachs or around their necks. This marine debris has sloshed into the public spotlight recently, thanks to growing media coverage as well as scientists and explorers who are increasingly visiting the North Pacific to see plastic pollution in action.

What's it made of?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes been described as a "trash island," but that's a misconception, says Holly Bamford, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program. If only things were that simple.
"We could just go out there and scoop up an island," Bamford says. "If it was one big mass, it would make our jobs a whole lot easier."

Instead, it's like a galaxy of garbage, populated by billions of smaller trash islands that may be hidden underwater or spread out over many miles. That can make it maddeningly difficult to study — Bamford says we still don't know how big the garbage patch is, despite the oft-cited claim that it's as big as Texas.
"You see these quotes that it's the size of Texas, then it's the size of France, and I even heard one description of it as a continent," she says. "That alone should lend some concern that there's not consistency in our idea of its size. It's these hot spots, not one big mass. Maybe if you added them all up it's the size of Texas, but we still don't know. It could be bigger than Texas."

 While there's still much we don't understand about the garbage patch, we do know that most of it's made of plastic. And that's where the problems begin.

Unlike most other trash, plastic isn't biodegradable — i.e., the microbes that break down other substances don't recognize plastic as food, leaving it to float there forever. Sunlight does eventually "photodegrade" the bonds in plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still never goes away; it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain.
About 80 percent of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land, much of which is plastic bags, bottles and various other consumer products. Free-floating fishing nets make up another 10 percent of all marine litter, or about 705,000 tons, according to U.N. estimates. The rest comes largely from recreational boaters, offshore oil rigs and large cargo ships, which drop about 10,000 steel containers into the sea each year full of things like hockey pads, computer monitors, resin pellets and LEGO octopuses. But despite such diversity — and plenty of metal, glass and rubber in the garbage patch — the majority of material is still plastic, since most everything else sinks or biodegrades before it gets there.

How is it formed?

Earth has five or six major oceanic gyres — huge spirals of seawater formed by colliding currents — but one of the largest is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, filling most of the space between Japan and California. The upper part of this gyre, a few hundred miles north of Hawaii, is where warm water from the South Pacific crashes into cooler water from the north. Known as the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, this is also where the trash collects.
Bamford refers to the convergence zone as a "trash superhighway" because it ferries plastic rubbish along an elongated, east-west corridor that links two spinning eddies known as the Eastern Garbage Patch and the Western Garbage Patch. The whole system collectively makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It may take several years for debris to reach this area, depending where it's coming from. Plastic can be washed from the interiors of continents to the sea via sewers, streams and rivers, or it might simply wash away from the coast. Either way, it can be a six- or seven-year journey before it's spinning around in the garbage patch. On the other hand, fishing nets and steel containers are often dropped right in with the rest of the trash.

What's the problem?

Marine debris threatens environmental health in several ways. Here are the main ones:
• Entanglement: The growing number of abandoned plastic fishing nets is one of the greatest dangers from marine debris, Bamford says. The nets entangle seals, sea turtles and other animals in a phenomenon known as "ghost fishing," often drowning them. With more fishermen from developing countries now using plastic for its low cost and high durability, many abandoned nets can continue fishing on their own for months or years. One of the most controversial types are bottom-set gill nets, which are buoyed by floats and anchored to the sea floor, sometimes stretching for thousands of feet.

Virtually any marine life can be endangered by plastic, but sea turtles seem especially susceptible. In addition to being entangled by fishing nets, they often swallow plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish, their main prey. They can also get caught up in a variety of other objects, such as this snapping turtle that grew up constricted by a plastic ring around its body.

 Small surface debris: Plastic resin pellets are another common piece of marine debris; the tiny, industrial-use granules are shipped in bulk around the world, melted down at manufacturing sites and remolded into commercial plastics. Being so small and plentiful, they can easily get lost along the way, washing through the watershed with other plastics and into the sea. They tend to float there and eventually photodegrade, but that takes many years. In the meantime, they wreak havoc with sea birds such as the short-tailed albatross.

Albatross parents leave their chicks on land in Pacific islands to go scour the ocean surface for food, namely protein-rich fish eggs. These are small dots bobbing just below the surface, and look unfortunately similar to resin pellets. Well-meaning albatrosses scoop up these pellets — along with other floating trash such as cigarette lighters — and return to feed the indigestible plastic to their chicks, which eventually die of starvation or ruptured organs. Decaying albatross chicks are frequently found with stomachs full of plastic debris (see photo above).

• Photodegradation: As sunlight breaks down floating debris, the surface water thickens with suspended plastic bits. This is bad for a couple of reasons. First, Bamford says, is plastic's "inherent toxicity": It often contains colorants and chemicals like bisphenol-A, which studies have linked to various environmental and health problems, and these toxins may leach out into the seawater. Plastic has also been shown to absorb pre-existing organic pollutants like PCBs from the surrounding seawater, which can enter the food chain — along with BPA and other inherent toxins — if the plastic bits are accidentally ingested by marine life.

What can we do?

The discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Capt. Charles Moore, once said a cleanup effort "would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went."
"He makes a really good point there," Bamford says. "It's very difficult."

Still, NOAA conducts flyovers to study the garbage patch, and two research teams sailed there last summer to collect debris and water samples. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography held a press conference after returning from their three-week voyage in August, describing the amount of trash as "shocking." They found large and small items as well as a vast underwater haze of photodegraded plastic flakes, and are now analyzing their samples to figure out how the plastic interacts with its marine environment.
Meanwhile, the international Project Kaisei team also spent last August in the garbage patch, studying its contents in hopes of eventually recycling them or turning them into fuel. And "adventure ecologist" David de Rothschild is pushing on with plans to sail around the garbage patch in a boat made entirely of recycled plastics, taking a test voyage earlier this month after a long delay due to construction trouble. Called "Plastiki," the ship is intended to highlight the connection between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea — an increasingly evident link, thanks not only to media attention for the Pacific patch, but also the recent discovery of a similar patch in the North Atlantic.

Ultimately, more plastic recycling and wider use of biodegradable materials is the best hope for controlling these garbage patches, Bamford says, but that's an uphill battle.
"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy."

Editor's note: This article has been updated from its original version, which first appeared June 9, 2009.
Photos courtesy NOAA

Build a Green America with American Made Renewable Energy Systems and Green Construction Materials-Green Products and Green Building Services.--
Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com



10.21.2010

Plastic Recycling News

The Recycling Myth*


Collecting plastics at curbside fosters the belief that, like aluminum and glass, these will be converted into new similar objects. From one glass bottle we can make another glass bottle of similar quality, in an economic manner.  However this is not the case with plastic.

The best we can hope for
plastics is that these will be turned into other products such as doormats, textiles, plastic lumber, etc.. These products will still end at some point in the landfill – and do NOT stem the need for more virgin petroleum product.  

This is NOT recycling, but down-cycling.


But not even this down-cycling is happening.


For instance, in the US 93% of plastics are NOT recovered (put in plastic"recycling" bins). These go straight to landfills. PET bottles that have a
redemption value (cash value) fare a bit better: 62% are NOT recovered.  (EPA
data 2008 <http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/plastics.htm>)


How big is the problem?  How much waste is generated by single use plastics?  Artist Chris Jordan offers the following visualizations.

Imagine 8 football fields http://www.flickr.com/photos/covered
thickly with plastic bottles: this is  the equivalent to the number of plastic beverage bottles discarded in the US every five minutes (data: 2009)


Now imagine a line of plastic bottles going around the planet five times. This would be equivalent to the number of plastic bottles discarded every
week in the US..

just for waterhttp://www.storyofstuff.org/bottledwater.php
(data 2009)


Now imagine the waste created by all types of single use plastics put together,  by all the countries in the world

(the US is only 5% of the
worlds population)…

This includes plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic
utensils, cups, containers and more.


It is hard to imagine…  We simply need to stop this insane stream of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable, toxic waste.


In most parts of the world people struggle to build basic infrastructures



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Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com/

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