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  • #16
    Not to start an argument but I have seen and used plastic recycling to make new parts.

    Yes, you must separate compatible plastics together:

    1) flexible "bottle" PVC, not soda bottles which is very high quality crystal polycarbonate or similar but plain shampoo/alcohol/detergent/ketchup/mustard etc. , the kind which is usually translucent or dyed, and is flexible so you can squeeze the bottle, is *easy* to recycle.
    Original plastic comes in rice grain sized (and similar looking) balls, a couple mm diameter, which goes into the injecting machine, molten and mixed with a spiral screw.

    Recycled is the same, but instead of original grains you use shredded bottles and such.
    Colour is not uniform and parts are weaker, but perfectly useful for non critical parts.
    Weak on the traction but quite usable on compression.

    2) the classic hard plastic , such as used in plastic forks, spoons and knives, knobs, and in general when we think the word "plastic" , can also be crushed in mills to small "scales" for two purposes: first to mix it in rotating drums to achieve at least *some* homogeneity, at least based on Statistics, and second to be able to feed the injecting machines.

    Parts come out in a typical "marbleized" colour reflecting the dissimilar City Thrash quality of "prime materials" , althoug funnily enough different colours tend to mix into a greyish greenish tinted colour.
    Why? ... I don't know.

    Very common here but I suspect also on many other parts of the World .

    FWIW our last President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her Party members , who left the power in October, stole the last remaining Dollars so no imported stuff is getting into Argentina, including virgin plastic pellets, so plastic parts makers are buying and using all the recycled plastic they can get their hands on.

    Guess what: NEW wire bobbins are coming out in that greenish marbleized colour, guess why

    And my custom aluminum sheet maker is buying tons (literally) of aluminum soda cans, old pots and pans, junked aluminum windows and doors, etc, and I can pay him with my aluminum scrap.
    Can also pay the copper wire maker with old burnt transformers, electric motors, solenoids, odd pieces of gas or gasoline copper tube, etc.

    So my new Law might be:"there's nothing which pushes recycling forward as a good balance of payment crisis"
    Juan Manuel Fahey

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Leo_Gnardo View Post
      We still pay 5 cent bottle/can deposits in NY. When that started late 70's I noticed roadside litter of soda & beer containers went to almost nothing overnight. Littering's resumed since then, not many folks value a nickel. OTOH we now have some recycling vagrants that pick thru folks' garbage to raise a little cash.
      The "Kramer Scam" of returning bottles across state lines is now a reality! California reports a 107% return rate on certain bottles and had a "3 month tally of 3,500 vehicles bringing bulk recyclables in at their 16 boarder stations, including 505 rental trucks filled to capacity"

      Recycling fraud is draining California cash - latimes

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      • #18
        We have park benches around here made from recycled plastic. Molded with fake wood grain, they look OK, and very sturdy.

        Michigan enacted the bottle return law 40 years ago. Used to be the road sides were littered with empty cans and bottles. Very reflective at night. But living in the country along a relatively busy road, the ditch along our road was full of them. We'd go out regularly and clean them up. And like Leo said, the deposit law happened and overnight, no more bottle and can trash. Michigan charges 10 cents each. Unlike most new laws, that one was very effective.
        Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by The Dude View Post
          If you could only figure out how to melt them into pickup covers.....
          Then look no further than this:


          The guy is a genius.
          Those dies are basically "proof of concept" , yet they work very well, only problem is that they are slow, you might make , say, 5 or 6 pickup covers in an hour, while an industrial machine might make, say, 500.
          For own use, who cares?

          What he's lacking is better die closing (instead of simple slow C clamps) and adding some extractor instead of yanking finished parts out of the dies by grabbing them with a water/gas plier, but, hey, that's not the point, he's basically showing it's *very* doable.

          And of course you can fill that heated cylinder with cracked wire spool pieces.

          I can imagine a separate heated cylinder just to melt scrap plastic and mix it into a reasonably homogeneous ingot which gets stored for later use, each cylindrical ingot being a full load for the actual injecting one.

          Taking care of using matched plastic types, I don't see a problem with final parts.

          To cover marbleized colours, a little carbon black may be added, which will cover lighter hues.

          Dies can be easily carved in aluminum on a CNC machine.

          I am really itching now to make custom knobs.

          I have a couple old molds/dies I had made long ago for Bakelite pressing, maybe I can modify them for this use ... or simply have new ones made.
          CNC rulez !!!!!!
          Juan Manuel Fahey

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          • #20
            Originally posted by tedmich View Post
            Plastic recycling is (mostly) a scam, there's no market for used plastic. Send back to Mfg. sounds good if possible.

            Or maybe Hippy doll house furniture?
            [ATTACH=CONFIG]38312[/ATTACH]
            Actually some plastic is sold to China, and remelted to make new DVD players and stuff. But the rest of the plastic claimed to recycled ends up in land fills.

            Most of the spools I have say they will reuse them.
            It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure. — Albert Einstein


            http://coneyislandguitars.com
            www.soundcloud.com/davidravenmoon

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            • #21
              Originally posted by tedmich View Post
              The "Kramer Scam" of returning bottles across state lines is now a reality! California reports a 107% return rate on certain bottles and had a "3 month tally of 3,500 vehicles bringing bulk recyclables in at their 16 boarder stations, including 505 rental trucks filled to capacity"

              Recycling fraud is draining California cash - latimes
              I have lived in three states that had deposits. All three had unique markings on bottles and cans that identified deposit was paid on them. Neighboring states and the state I currently live in with no deposit has no such markings. When returning bottles and cans for refund, they would inspect them all for the markings. Are there neighboring states to California using the deposit markings? Or is it a problem where the people taking the bottles and cans in are part of the scam?

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              • #22
                "Polar Fleece" Polyester cloth is made from recycled PET bottles

                https://youtu.be/zyF9MxlcItw

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                • #23
                  When I have a 5-7 lb spool that has about 1 lb left on it I'll start on a new spool. This leaves me many choices down the road in diameter and ohms per foot as each spool is a bit different than the next.

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