Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MechAg94 on July 11, 2022, 11:35:42 AM
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https://youtu.be/3R7XAeWCNqI
I thought this video took an interesting look at plastics and recycling. Basically says plastics manufacturers spent a lot of advertising money encouraging people to throw away plastic containers instead of reusing them. Then guilt tripped people about recycling while continuing to make cheap single-use containers. I hadn't heard anyone put quite that twist on things before. I do agree to the point that it seems many plastic containers are designed to be single use throw-away containers that cannot be reused. And they are saying many plastics cannot be effectively recycled.
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Saw this one last week.
Not only did WE get duped, but east Asia got duped as well. Starting in the 80's, the US made a concerted effort to sell the notion of recycling as an industry to several Asian ports. The US would ship them ships full of mixed plastics, they'd sort them at the docks and realize that 75% or more is garbage that cannot be recycled, and they'd throw it right into the ocean there. The remainder would get sludged and turned into rubber ducks and whatnot. This is where the great Pacific garbage patch largely comes from.
You basically have 2 garbage cans. One's just got some weird triangles on it.
During the great COVID shutdown, we saw the "recycling" trucks picking up yard waste and recycling bins in the same truck at the same time.
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Reuse and Reduce. It's okay to care about the world if you're not a progressive.
My personal view on recycling is that if someone is willing to buy it then it is a valuable commodity to recycle. All metals fall into that. The rest, I do it on hope but have known for a long time the plastic industry created recycling to benefit them. Kinda like the sugar industry and the government joined hands to tell us fat was bad for a generation.
I would love to see us go back to glass reusable containers but I don't think we can, god knows how many govt sanitation regulations that would spark.
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Reuse and Reduce. It's okay to care about the world if you're not a progressive.
My personal view on recycling is that if someone is willing to buy it then it is a valuable commodity to recycle. All metals fall into that. The rest, I do it on hope but have known for a long time the plastic industry created recycling to benefit them. Kinda like the sugar industry and the government joined hands to tell us fat was bad for a generation.
I would love to see us go back to glass reusable containers but I don't think we can, god knows how many govt sanitation regulations that would spark.
The real reason glass won't work is transportation. It is too heavy to be transported long distances, much less transported long distances back to be recycled. The American impulse to centralization and transportation is what killed glass. Glass can work when you have a brewery in every town, and live 5miles from the dairy farm. That's not the America we live in anymore. In many ways it was better the old way. Lots of places in Europe where (with government regulations of course) they are able to still use glass and recycle and refill it on-site.
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Reuse and Reduce. It's okay to care about the world if you're not a progressive.
This. Before the enviros and before disposable society, this was SOP. I'm sure many here have anecdotes about parents or grandparents saving and reusing all kinds of stuff. I know when I was cleaning my dad's garage after he passed last year, I still found nut and bolt containers that were the same fruit cans from the 1960s that he used when I was a kid.
I worked at the county dump for a few years as a young buck in the 80's. The county had just started the recycling thing, and fully 50% of everything that got dumped in the recycling areas ended up getting moved a second time to the landfill and buried with everything else.
The "send it to Asia" thing was just another NIMBY thing for the enviros. They didn't care one whit what the environmental consequences of our "recyclables" were in those countries.
I don't know how it works in cities in Idaho, but where I am in hillabilly-ville, we all have one can for everything. I generally burn carboard, spread or mulch grass clippings and stuff, and most everything else goes in the trash can.
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My parents have an infrequent trash pick up. They separate what won't burn and that goes to the trash bin to be picked up.
I can't see us going back to glass, but it would make sense if the plastic industry designed containers to be easier/safer to reuse instead of designed as a single-use and throw it away. Not sure how that would work. Companies such as Gatorade are not going to want to process used containers for refill. Adds a lot of cleaning and disinfecting liability.
For stuff like water, I guess you can buy the 5 gallon water jugs and refill them at the store.
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One of my youthful past-times was taking our trash to the burn barrel, and playing with fire. Anything that didn't burn or compost would be collected in the basement, and Dad would take it to the Buick dealership where he turned wrenches, and toss it in the dumpster.
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My late wife was from South America. In her country, there are (or were, ten years ago) two types of plastic soda bottles: disposable, and reusable. The reusable type were made of much thicker, heavier plastic so they could be taken back to the bottling plant, washed and (hopefully) sterilized, and reused. They made no pretenses about "recycling" the disposable ones. Those went into the regular trash.
Going beyond bottles, IMHO the most effective form of recycling is direct reuse. I know of some small towns around my state that have an area at their town dump or transfer station where people can leave things that still work, but which they no longer want or need. One, in particular, has a building about the size of a 2-car garage for that stuff. Anyone can walk in, poke around, and take whatever they want. Free.
My snooty town, of course, won't do that. Fortunately, the attendants sometimes turn a blind eye if someone somehow misses the dumpster with a perfectly good bicycle their spawn outgrew, and it sits on the ground until someone grabs it. I've gotten bicycles that way that I cleaned up for kids who needed them. Even got a 5,000 watt Coleman generator that way.
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You know one of the things that I miss the most from the Big House in the 'Burbs I had before the Jen thing?
The trash compactor. Food went down the sinkerator, and anything else went into the compactor. I'd take out the trash when it got full.
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I've seen a commercial a couple times recently where "representatives" from the major soda manufacturers are talking about how the companies are making their bottles from "recyclable" plastic.
I thought they'd (supposedly) been doing that for years.
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I recycle it all back into the atmosphere or ground. Fire is a marvelous thing.
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You should see my burn pile right now. It's 20' x 20' and, at present, is over 9' tall. And spilling over one end.
Since we're under a burn ban for the foreseeable future, it's going to get a lot larger.
We spend too much for garbage service, we'll have maybe 1/2 of a 30 gallon can per week.
The only recycling I do is metal. It either gets repurposed or taken to the recycling business in town. Still trying to come up with a good use for old lawn mower blades, got fifty or so in the pile.
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The only recycling I do is metal. It either gets repurposed or taken to the recycling business in town. Still trying to come up with a good use for old lawn mower blades, got fifty or so in the pile.
Sounds like you could start a machete manufacturing business.
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Sounds like you could start a machete manufacturing business.
That sounds interesting. I'll have to do some research. I imagine that'll require some forging, which I have an interest (but no training) in. I've watched Forged in Fire a few times, they've incorporated wire welds in some of their builds, so filling in the mounting hole with weld seems as if it'd work. Might take some experimenting to get the correct filler material. Right now I've only got arc & oxy/acetylene setups with hopes to get a small wire welder in the not to distant future.
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Sounds like you could start a machete manufacturing business.
When I was a teenager and learning to weld, I made three lawnmower blades into a czech headgehog.
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When I was a teenager and learning to weld, I made three lawnmower blades into a czech headgehog.
Really wish you wouldnt have posted that. I dont need another project.
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Milk got kind of shy a while ago and the only thing I could find at Sprouts was quart glass bottles with a $2.00 deposit on them.
I don't thave the exact numbers at hand, but I recall the container weight was almost half the weight of the gross product weight. I really wondered about the transportation costs, as well as the cleaning and sterilizing the bottles when they got them back.
The bottles had disposable caps, so there was nothing I could use them for at home. After almost a month I had a chance to bring them back (I don't normally shop at Sprouts) for my $2 per.
My only bitch about plastic containers is they usually get too topheavy as product is used. But they flatten underfoot pretty good for compaction in my trash.
Terry, 230RN
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Really wish you wouldnt have posted that. I dont need another project.
No kidding. I need to practice my welding more (once the weather cools) and these are a great idea as "decoration" on my bridge road. =D
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That sounds interesting. I'll have to do some research. I imagine that'll require some forging, which I have an interest (but no training) in. I've watched Forged in Fire a few times, they've incorporated wire welds in some of their builds, so filling in the mounting hole with weld seems as if it'd work. Might take some experimenting to get the correct filler material. Right now I've only got arc & oxy/acetylene setups with hopes to get a small wire welder in the not to distant future.
Rather than filling the holes with rod material that might not be as strong as the blade itself, you might be better off heating the blades up, folding them multiple times and make a solid bar to shape into your desired tool.
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Rather than filling the holes with rod material that might not be as strong as the blade itself, you might be better off heating the blades up, folding them multiple times and make a solid bar to shape into your desired tool.
That's a pretty advanced technique for a guy who has never owned a forge.
I'm thinking of cutting off a piece of the blade (that wouldn't be needed for the finished product) and using the oxy/acetylene to melt that piece into the hole. It'd require care to not introduce inclusions, porosity, etc. but doable.
Some of the blades have a tungsten carbide insert at the cutting edge. It would be nice to incorporate that as the cutting edge of the machete. They're only about 4" long, so it would take a few of them for the entire length. That'd be one of those "I'll play with it later" ideas, have to get the basics down first.
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Why not leave the hole? You could fill the hole with something like a 7014 or 7018 rod and it will be at least as strong as the blade, but it probably won't match when you finish it.
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I've got 5# of 11018-m I'd bought back when I had some spare time and an idea to experiment with on mower blades. The spare time disappeared before I could perform the experiment (it's just on hold, not forgotten), might as well use the rod for something else in the meantime.
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I'm subscribed to her!!
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That's a pretty advanced technique for a guy who has never owned a forge.
I'm thinking of cutting off a piece of the blade (that wouldn't be needed for the finished product) and using the oxy/acetylene to melt that piece into the hole. It'd require care to not introduce inclusions, porosity, etc. but doable.
Some of the blades have a tungsten carbide insert at the cutting edge. It would be nice to incorporate that as the cutting edge of the machete. They're only about 4" long, so it would take a few of them for the entire length. That'd be one of those "I'll play with it later" ideas, have to get the basics down first.
Nothing you said there is doable.
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https://usa.sandrinknives.com/
These guys make Tungsten Carbide blades if you are interested. Not for the use you are talking about though.
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Nothing you said there is doable.
None of it? What's the difference between melting a welding rod to fill a hole and melting a narrow piece of steel to fill a hole?
If the flame is hot enough to melt the base metal, it'd be hot enough to melt the filler material - which would be the same material as the base metal. I've filled more than one hole in various materials using both a standard arc welder and oxy/acetylene.
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I'm a steel fabricator. I'm well aware that the finish after a welded hole is milled will not match the rest of the part perfectly, but a 2" Scotch Brite disc in a 90 degree die grinder can convincingly cover up a lot of sins.
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This. Before the enviros and before disposable society, this was SOP. I'm sure many here have anecdotes about parents or grandparents saving and reusing all kinds of stuff.
My maternal grandmother wasted virtually nothing. She survived the Great Depression and the rationing during WW2. I remember as a kid, she grew all her own vegetables and fruits. She taught me canning. She wasn't a smoker, but there was an ashtray on the front porch. She used ashes to scrub pots and pans. Dishwater was collected in a sink tub to pour around the roots of her fruit trees, because it would deter pests. Anything that was not edible for humans but was still food went to her dogs, like bones. I remember her throwing in the trash no more than one standard plastic grocery bag full of waste per WEEK!
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None of it? What's the difference between melting a welding rod to fill a hole and melting a narrow piece of steel to fill a hole?
If the flame is hot enough to melt the base metal, it'd be hot enough to melt the filler material - which would be the same material as the base metal. I've filled more than one hole in various materials using both a standard arc welder and oxy/acetylene.
It's been several decades since I studied this stuff, but I assume because the weld won't be shielded like it would from the coating on a welding rod or the gas in MIG welding. If you do use oxy-welding, set the torch for a slightly reducing flame and you'll get some protection.
Are you going to heat treat this when you are all done? If not (you probably know this) whatever welding you do to fill the hole will ruin the temper of the blade. Maybe that doesn't matter right in the middle.
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I'm a steel fabricator. I'm well aware that the finish after a welded hole is milled will not match the rest of the part perfectly, but a 2" Scotch Brite disc in a 90 degree die grinder can convincingly cover up a lot of sins.
In a previous life I was a weld inspector* at a naval shipyard. Not so good on the welding part, (my welds hold what they need to), but I still remember what a good weld looks like, inside and out.
*Mag particle, dye penetrant & radiography mostly.
Who knows, maybe the filled in mounting "star" would look good enough to be a trademark. =D
I figured a heat treat would be necessary. Heating the center to welding temps is going to change things. Proper heat treating would be part of the learning curve.