[FailMore]

I have no understanding of the relevant science, but would it be possible to make plastic actively absorb carbon (and perhaps change colour). So if you bought a bottle of coke, it would slowly turn from transparent to green as it absorbed carbon. Then as we use copious amounts of plastic, which we will and do, we would bring down carbon by a little bit.

Thoughts?

[nosianu]

Unless you do what the earth did for millions of years and bury the carbon deep underground anything you do will merely create a pipeline effect: When it starts there is a small reduction, but overall there is none as soon as the pipeline is full.

What do you mean by "absorb carbon" anyway - plastic is carbon for the most part, the "H(ydrogen)" in the molecules is tiny in terms of weight (H compared to C atom), and any other atoms mixed in for this or that effect are minor components of what is mostly various kinds of carbo-hydrogen molecules.

[saiya-jin]

Coke (or sodas) might not be the best example, plenty of CO2 inside, if you take C out of it, ignitable O2 remains. Might end up pretty nasty if bottle is left on the scorching sun (not a chemist, just armchair guessing).

Generally making something chemically active with god-knows-what long term effects and being in touch of food is a no-no for me. Some other materials for other usages might be better ideas. Or lets just stick to good old regulation and extra taxes.