Chaparral wrote:I always envisoned a "core charge" of sorts as the stuff gets scarce. You see core charges in the automotive repair business; say for example you buy a new starter motor for your old Toyota with 400,000km on it and the repair shop will charge you a small fee of 5-10 USD if you insist on keeping your old starter motor assembly. The repair shop is deprived of the opportunity to resell the old unit to someone who will rebuild it and market it as a rebuilt/reconditioned unit. I've always envisioned styrofoam food cartons, plastic milk/orange juice jugs and beverage containers as one day being subject to this at the checkout line. The container may account for 50% or more of the cost of the product some day. The customer brings it back or the customer would essentially pay double.
It's one thing to expend more energy trying to get an energy source, it is a whole other thing to expend energy mining for something that will be put to a non-energy use (like plastic). It may cost more, but it will still be done (presuming there is a functioning economy based on another energy source in the future).
What sector will account for the largest source of oil demand growth over the next two decades? Most people might assume transportation, with hundreds of millions of people in the developing world acquiring cars for the first time. However, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the petrochemical industry will represent the largest source of additional oil consumption through 2040. By 2040, the IEA actually sees oil demand from passenger vehicles declining, while road freight accounts for a growth of 4 million barrels per day (mb/d). Aviation adds 3 mb/d and maritime shipping adds another 1.4 mb/d. On the other hand, the manufacturing of petrochemicals such as plastics will add 6.2 mb/d to global oil demand by 2040, according to the IEA’s New Policies Scenario, which incorporates the effects of policies from governments that have already been announced. The debate over
Although crude oil is a source of raw material (feedstock) for making plastics, it is not the major source of feedstock for plastics production in the United States. Plastics are produced from natural gas, feedstocks derived from natural gas processing, and feedstocks derived from crude oil refining. May 17, 2017
Gil-Galad wrote:I think future generations will have to obtain plastic by mining our rubbish dumps. Plastic in the third world is one of the most horrific things - lying beside the road, in trees, in rivers. The sooner plastic production comes to an end for bottles and bags the better
vtsnowedin wrote:Gil-Galad wrote:I think future generations will have to obtain plastic by mining our rubbish dumps. Plastic in the third world is one of the most horrific things - lying beside the road, in trees, in rivers. The sooner plastic production comes to an end for bottles and bags the better
I agree about mining the dumps. Imagine a seam of ore in a mine that was five percent copper and seven percent aluminum and twenty percent hydrocarbons in the form of plastic.
But instead of ending all plastic production we need to stop making single use throw away plastic items and do a much better job of keeping plastic out of the environment after it's useful life. You wouldn't want to switch the dashboard of your car back to steel or wood or any of those other car parts that make modern cars safer, lighter and more fuel efficient.
IMO, the mining of the old town dump as a career and profitable exercise. Most folks alive today in the USA have no idea how thoroughly things were recycled before the 1950's in this country. If a jar or bottle made of glass was still sound it was kept and used, or passed on for other uses. My parents lived through the Great Depression and throwing away something you might someday have a use for was a terrible thing to do. If you had a tangle of old fencing wire and you were in a hurry you might use new wire, but when you had all your chores done you would go back and untangle that wire so the next time there was a break you would have it ready to use. I speak from experience having helped repair the electric fence that kept the cattle and horses from wandering off many times growing up.THE WORLD MADE BY HAND
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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