So maybe this isn't exactly a comment, but more of a hope, since you are closer to the field of industrial chemistry than I am. If anything comes to your attention that would help a small, rural community develop a local industry that uses recyclable plastics as a feedstock, it would be of great interest.
I live in a rural Alaskan town of 2000, hours by boat from the nearest "city" which has no recycling facility anyway. Most of Alaska has a huge trash problem.
Our volunteer recycling group is very active but most plastics cannot be recycled, only, sometimes, depending on prices, PETE and HDPE, which we barge to Seattle.
We always look for something better. One better thing would be a way for a small local business to use trash as feedstock for something usable. So, yes, that's one area of interest.
Up the road in Whitehorse (Yukon Territory, Canada), which is a much larger town, they tried a plastic-to-oil pilot project which I'm told was somewhat successful except that they couldn't get a well-sorted feedstock and gave it up. Energy costs are a problem in rural Alaska; oil would be nice. They used a machine from a Japanese manufacturer called Blest. Problem: it's really hard to get reliable information on this topic.
Likewise, incineration/cogeneration might be of interest and has the same issues of scale and of reliable information.
Your blog provides an interesting view of the world and is a reminder of the complex industrialization that serves as the backdrop to our lives. Meanwhile, here, day-to-day, there are these mundane concerns - what to do with all those #5 yogurt containers? And OMG, all that styrofoam! And so many old fishnets!
I hardly think plastic trash is the focus of your professional life. But the person who comes up with a small scale, local way of dealing with some of this stuff will be a hero. Perhaps if you run across information along those lines you might share it on your blog?
Carolyn, I will definitely look into this because I think if you can solve this issue in Alaska, then other remote islands and towns that have the sample problem could as well. I'll try and gather some information around different methods of what to do, literature, and put together something that might be useful.
I thought about the concept of a completely isolated economy in graduate school and how a small community such as an island or a remote town might be completely self sustainable or very much so with respect to materials.
What are your town's biggest export i.e. other than the beauty of nature what are the economical reasons for a town being in a remote area of Alaska? If you ever want to set-up a meeting to talk or write me a longer private email just email me at polymerist@substack.com
So maybe this isn't exactly a comment, but more of a hope, since you are closer to the field of industrial chemistry than I am. If anything comes to your attention that would help a small, rural community develop a local industry that uses recyclable plastics as a feedstock, it would be of great interest.
You mean you are interested in doing your own mechanical recycling of plastics?
I live in a rural Alaskan town of 2000, hours by boat from the nearest "city" which has no recycling facility anyway. Most of Alaska has a huge trash problem.
Our volunteer recycling group is very active but most plastics cannot be recycled, only, sometimes, depending on prices, PETE and HDPE, which we barge to Seattle.
We always look for something better. One better thing would be a way for a small local business to use trash as feedstock for something usable. So, yes, that's one area of interest.
Up the road in Whitehorse (Yukon Territory, Canada), which is a much larger town, they tried a plastic-to-oil pilot project which I'm told was somewhat successful except that they couldn't get a well-sorted feedstock and gave it up. Energy costs are a problem in rural Alaska; oil would be nice. They used a machine from a Japanese manufacturer called Blest. Problem: it's really hard to get reliable information on this topic.
Likewise, incineration/cogeneration might be of interest and has the same issues of scale and of reliable information.
Your blog provides an interesting view of the world and is a reminder of the complex industrialization that serves as the backdrop to our lives. Meanwhile, here, day-to-day, there are these mundane concerns - what to do with all those #5 yogurt containers? And OMG, all that styrofoam! And so many old fishnets!
I hardly think plastic trash is the focus of your professional life. But the person who comes up with a small scale, local way of dealing with some of this stuff will be a hero. Perhaps if you run across information along those lines you might share it on your blog?
Carolyn, I will definitely look into this because I think if you can solve this issue in Alaska, then other remote islands and towns that have the sample problem could as well. I'll try and gather some information around different methods of what to do, literature, and put together something that might be useful.
I thought about the concept of a completely isolated economy in graduate school and how a small community such as an island or a remote town might be completely self sustainable or very much so with respect to materials.
What are your town's biggest export i.e. other than the beauty of nature what are the economical reasons for a town being in a remote area of Alaska? If you ever want to set-up a meeting to talk or write me a longer private email just email me at polymerist@substack.com