[aznpwnzor]

Someone who knows more should prove me wrong, but...

Intuitively shouldn't a dedicated plant's machinery have much higher efficiency? Coupling that with the biggest problems of recycling being the combined energy costs of transportation and processing, this seems to not solve anything?

It kind of solves only one leg of the transportation, but the final recycled plastic will still need to be transported. That's again assuming costs of transportation are linear with respect to number of sources (but I don't think that's true...). And assuming same thing about processing energy efficiency, this does worse with the processing energy part.

[Joof]

Yes, but it's not all about processing efficiency. I'm sure lack of availability is mentioned, especially where there isn't money or population density

In the states, we could use it in a different way; to encourage community. If nobody recycles their goods, industrial processes can't help. Watching these machines and immediately building a new thing out of them really drives home the usefulness of recycling. It's 'cool' to watch and fun to do.

I grew up in Houston, Texas; some people recycled sometimes, but most people I knew (in affluent areas, so plenty of waste and education) just didn't care. My college apartment complex didn't have recycling at all despite a center within 10 minutes.

Our fathers mostly worked in oil / fossil fuels, where environmentalists block critical infrastructure for both good and inane reasons. (One inane example, a small town refused to allow an increase in the throughput of a natural gas pipe extending along a river; this put it at higher risk of explosion). People who recycle are the enemy; they are the guys preventing them from doing their jobs.

I want to build one of these with my dad and set it up so that the neighbors and their kids can come by, watch the plastic churn and have a new doodad to bring home. He would love it, they would love it (minus some terrified parents) and it would be a pretty great thing all around.

[hosh]

I think we'll find something more interesting if:

- The outputs of this recycling tech can be fed into personal fabrication tech (3D printers, etc.)

- Power generation is decentralized (solar, etc.)

It's part of a set of tech that would allow for the localization of manufacturing, closing the whole lifecycle locally. This in turn brings things back to the community. It's not always about total energy efficiency.

[smellf]

> The outputs of this recycling tech can be fed into personal fabrication tech (3D printers, etc.)

I can:

http://preciousplastic.com/videos/build/extrusion/

[bigbugbag]

Well, those are not mutually exclusive.

Building a plastic recycling plant is out of reach for most of the people almost everywhere and requires industry while building those machines though requiring tools and skills is totally doable in a local workshop.

The precious plastic project allows a handful of individuals to a local operation. A village can be equipped with those machines and beyond picking the local plastic waste and reusing it, it also offers the possibility to not throw the waste away.

Here we have recycling plants, but it seems no one actually knows how they're operated, what they actually recycle from what is burned or buried and there are no obvious resulting products. What we do know is that they are expensive, financed by taxes and there are lots of constraints.

I'd rather have a place run by locals where I can get some new objects and material for a 3d printer.