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Upcycled plastic can be turned into soap, researchers find (scrippsnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by number6@feddit.nl to c/science@lemmy.ml

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Researchers at Virginia Tech have found a way to upcycle plastic into soap. Around 120 grams to 130 grams of plastic can make 100 grams of soap.

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[–] number6@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because it gives economic value to plastics, helping to pull them out of the waste stream.

[–] CobblerScholar@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Its a bandaid no different than using plastics in roads or for backfill. The plastic needs to chemically change into something that is processable by nature without fucking everything up

[–] number6@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago

Changing it into soap does change it chemically. It becomes just like the soap you use every day.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nature, bacteria, has already evolved to process plastic

Edit. Literally a few posts down on my feed

https://lemmy.world/post/4075369

[–] CobblerScholar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On a scale far below anything that we can reasonably count on anytime soon and only under certain conditions. It won't be the miracle solution to the mountains of plastic we've produced over the last century

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Scale changes everything