A challenge - A fortnight without plastic

[Wombat]

What about if you made your own plastic, based on one of the originals - phenol formaldehyde resin (Bakelite) - It is very hard so you could do electric and computer bits. If you made the phenol from vegetable derived tannins - Hmmm not sure how you would get the formaldehyde.......

Arrr buggerit! Yeah........do without...............No microwaving though

Nev

[PurpleDragon]

Yeah, but how much would it cost to actually make the stuff? The equipment alone ...

Now, I have three small children. When I go out, I take a sippy cup for the wee one and sports bottles for the other two so that they can drink in the car and stay hydrated. If I forget, then I buy the sports bottles for all of them. All made from plastic. I am completely at a loss as to what to use if I didn't use them!

[Shirley]

Get aluminium sigg bottles... or glass ones.. there are some lovely toughened glass ones available!!

[Shirley]

http://www.spiritofnature.co.uk/acatalo ... ttles.html glass ones...

[Muddypause]

Hmmm not sure how you would get the formaldehyde.......

Squeeze a few ants, maybe? Deconstruct some formica?

I remember reading a book in the school library about making your own plastic (it had a rather liberal interpretation of what the word 'plastic' meant - pretty well anything that is mouldable, which I suppose is strictly acurate). Presumably called something like 'The Boy's Bumber Book of Making Plastic' or something.

I didn't understand most of it, or have access to the chemicals needed, but there was one that used milk as it's basis. Can't remember a thing more about it than that.

[Wombat]

Ahhh yes! Thanks Stew, they used to make plastic out of CASEIN! A bit of a waste of protein but if you had spare you could use it. I have also made glue out of milk casein for wood working...........but that was a verrrrrrry long time ago...............

Nev

[PurpleDragon]

http://www.spiritofnature.co.uk/acatalo ... ttles.html glass ones...

Thanks, Shirley - I had no idea you could buy glass baby bottles. I can think of a whole bunch of reasons why glass ones wouldn't work well with my sprogs, but they are a good idea nevertheless.

Shame the drinking bit is plastic though.

[Kirstykbart]

I bought my 2 some new sports bottles the other day from Asda and they were metal. Still a plastic top, but I suppose maybe better than a full plastic one?

Kirsty

[Shirley]

Yeah... was thinking that about lots of bottles that we buy... the lid is quite often plastic... shame that they can't be sent back to the manufacturer for reuse.

[wulf]

How about buying several cartons of milk in advance and freezing them; that way you don't actually buy the plastic during your fornight!

Slightly more seriously, I think plastics and rubbers are great materials for all sorts of purposes; it's the profligate overuse of them rather than their existence and application that causes a problem.

Wulf

[Andy Hamilton]

yep you are right Wulf, I think plastic was invented near you whilst I think of it some where in south east London.

I wonder if it is cheating to use corn based starch packaging products like foo go?

[PurpleDragon]

Yeah... was thinking that about lots of bottles that we buy... the lid is quite often plastic... shame that they can't be sent back to the manufacturer for reuse.

Thats another mad thing. You can recycle the bottles but not the lids. What does everyone do with their lids?

[cir3ngirl]

Here we leave lids on plastic bottles that are to be recycled and the lables as well.

Davina

[PurpleDragon]

We're not allowed to. We have to wash ours, remove any labels and lids, and then take them to be recycled.

I mean, obviously we would wash them anyway or they would attract flies and stuff before you got the the tip, but I always feel so wasteful chucking the lids in the bin.

[Shirley]

Now... when I asked at the Aberdeenshire recycling bus when it was in Alford they said that we could put them back onto the bottle once the bottle had been squashed as flat as possible....

I said that was the opposite to what we had previously been advised but it seems they just didn't want folk putting the bottles in the recycling bin with the lids on without squashing the bottle, as that greatly reduces the number of bottles that can fit into the bin.