"Melt this at home": keeping plastic bag waste from getting into the ocean
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- Working with fellow National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jose Orteaga of Nicaragua, we are trying to come up with ideas for protecting marine life, like the endangered sea turtles, that you can do at home. Reducing the number of plastic bags that get into the ocean is one way, because turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and get them lodged in their throats and die. By simply melting your plastic bags into compact lumps using a typical household deep fryer you can ensure they never get to the ocean.
you should follow this up with ways to use that melted plastic. i am thinking pouring it into a mold perhaps & make useful items.
I have a stockpile of different washed and dried plastics I been keeping out of my trash, many people don't realize how much plastic is in our lives, thanks for the idea for melting it down.
I cut them into strips and weave them into reusable shopping totes. It's called plarn (plastic yarn). :D
Some 1 should make a plastic melter and make it available in market for purchase.
Or even a 3d printer supply machine where you put melted bags in it and it can be used for 3d printing
Explain the oven design will help most
Yes, agreed. All the little plastic wrappers etc used in the everage home. Why doesnt someone design a plastic melt like trash compactor for home use? Maybe the temps have to be so high that it has too much liability.
To all who are about to comment before reading Thomas H. Culhanes comments and description, please pause and read them. Some of your criticism is totally valid. However, it fails to see the the positive, creative, EXPERIMENTAL, and international uses for this. If the opportunity is available, of course, simply recycle your bags and use tote bags, but for those where it is not (parts of USA not excluded) this process could be reformed and used for locals to use as building blocks, instruments, tools, recycling bins... You name it!
Thanks for this Video! We're getting closer to finding a solution.
What about melting plastic for 3d printed material
Recycling the bags at the local grocery store is so much easier. Carrying a re-usable cloth bag into the store is even easier. If your community does not have a recycling program, work to get one started.
Save yourself the money for the frier, the oil and the electricity by buying a gallon of gas, dip the bags in it, and they will melt the same!!!...Your welcome!!!!!
@TheChipmunk2008 Thanks so much for your kind and helpful comments. I don't understand the negativity either, but that is the nature of youtube; people seem to like to attack in this medium, as if we are supposed to be offering perfect solutions when all we are are concerned citizens posting things we have found interesting or helpful. It's nice to find somebody else who gets that, and who cares. Cheers to you and yours; may we make the world better bit by bit.
Just bring your own bag with you. I know this video is a few years old, but having we all been getting into the habit of bring our own bags? Cooking food and burning plastic sounds like a good way to be come sick.
I don't know anyone that brings their own bag anywhere. I've never seen anyone use their own bag either.
AlottaBoulchit I see it all the time.
John Carlisle Wow I have no memory of watching this video or leaving this comment. LMAO. And now I have all kinds of reuseable bags to take to the store. Weird the difference a year can make, eh?
what if you're just making the switch but you have already accumulated plastic bags from before?
you can make yarn out of plastic bag's and make useful item's out of them
I'm looking into a metal form for plastic blocks that can be placed in the oil while it is cooking foods without contaminating the oil to take advantage of the waste heat. The intent is for experiments to continue in areas in developing countries where we cant pass the buck to your Wallyworlds. Most of us don't have that luxury and the contamination problems are extreme. I encourage you to travel to the slums and shanty towns I've lived in and still work in and help us find solutions. Thanks.
H did say everytime we finish with a walmart bag we throw it in the water. YES! Everytime I get home from shopping I get back in my car and drive to the nearest river that flows into the Atlantic ocean.
I bought a oil fryer for this purpose, it was a terrible process for myself maybe I don't know how to do it right, the plastic was not very usable for anything I could think of. My dog ate a bunch of plastic bags coated in grease. I'm not sure about the grease if there was a way that wasn't so greasy
You can also iron bags together into sheets of thick plastic for craft projects (use 2 sheets of parchment paper place at least 5 bags cut open inside, then press paper until bags melt together) You can even sew this material.
You can also cut bags into strips and use like yarn, called plarn.
That's PLARN
Can anyone address these questions/statements without malice or flaming?
*Burning (probably heating as well) any plastic releases toxic fumes even if the plastic is food-grade.
*Plastic is only food-grade when it is in the physical state intended for domestic use.
*The burning of ANY oil is considered carcinogenic in the state of California which is the primary example state in the US for being health and environment friendly.
*How much crude-oil or coal (fossil fuels) would be used by the "community" if they all used high-wattage, electric fryers?
*Can't use wood or paper for fire, that is carcinogenic too.
*Where do you take the cooking oil when you are finished with it?
*Are the inks that were in the plastic (but are now in the oil) environmentally safe?
*How much money do we waste on fryers that are now unsafe for cooking food?
*Do you drive a gas powered vehicle to that recycling place?
*How about petitioning the major store chains to see if they will stop using plastic bags?
*Just bring your own cloth bag. *But wash it each time you use it. They can become germ ridden very quickly.
*Vote for laws that support your views. You may win. You may lose. If you lose in a democracy then maybe not as many people share your view as you thought.
*Your view or technique may be flawed.
*Be open to new views.
*Boycott plastic manufacturers. Mom and pop grocery stores are not the villains.
*Some store owners and communities may not even know the negative effects they are having on the environment (if any).
Learn how to educate those that "want" to learn.
*Just reuse the bags at home.
Take about 15 minutes to think and you can probably come up with a dozen more better ideas than posting on RUclips for folks to view on their computers and ipads.
I recycle these bags into long strings to crochet with. I make diaper bags and water bottle holders. Such a great way to recycle and reuse.
I can then use the melted plastic to make stuff. I know how to make molds, so Imaa gonna try this.
Really nice if we may make stuff out of it. please share with me the method of making molds.
Yes, I do have an idea. Search the term "recycling plastic bags" or "crochet plastic bags". There are many groups in many areas, helping women improve their financial outlook by crocheting bags, rugs, baskets, etc out of plastic shopping bags. What do you know? A no waste solution to recycle something, make money, and not use any further resources other than your own time.
melting hdpe and ldpe which is what most bags are made of is safe and wont produce harmful fumes contrary to what most people are saying. polyethylene is a safe type of plastic which will wont release bad fumes while melting in fact you can melt anything thats hdpe such as milk containers hdpe buckets and detergent bottles without producing bad fumes i actually melt down a lot of these things and make blocks out of it with a clamped mold and the result is blocks that i can machine that are stronger than wood
Did he say "it doesn't affect the oil so you can do this while cooking"? :X
I do not see oil I see soap
im going to do this here in ecuador where trash is horrible, were researching solutions for plastic.. nobody knows what to do with this mess besides keep using it..
so far this is one of the best solutions ive found..
@mienaikoe Thank you for the kind and encouraging comments! People can be so nasty on youtube; it is nice when somebody like you sees and comments on the value of experiments in home plastics recycling. Volume reduction is indeed a great way to increase value as well as keep things from being blown or water carried into sensitive ecological areas.
I make the assumption that the vegetable oil can be subsequently placed in our biodigestors where it turns into methane and fertilizer for tree crops. The plastic contamination is hardly an issue in relative terms. And my intention is to start with fryer oil that has already been used and is heated to the right temperature to begin with. Any additional inputs of heat would be from waste heat dump from wind power, with solar thermal and PV and biogas assist, hence no greenhouse gases.
If you do this you should make something to condense the gases that come from the plastic, when you heat plastic up the petroleum used in it's production burns off, when this is condensed it will be an oil which can be further refined to kerosene, motor oil or gas. also when melting plastic the fumes are toxic and flamable so be careful.
"Every time" we throw away a bag we are poaching? I like doing good for the environment but we lose credibility when we exaggerate. Sorry for being really picky but...
Some people want to do seasteading, it is like homesteadin on the see. Seasteading needs floating platforms. Melted plastic can be used for platforms, and this way the garbage would not accumulate on the islands. And people would not accumulate on the islands either.
Thanks for your comments dkcoloradorocket. Seems almost everybody hates this video and has harsh things to say about it. But if you read the description you will see that I don't live in the US and am not trying to solve America's problems where there at "Wallyworlds". And the idea of "contaminated oil" worries me much less than having plastic bags end up in the ocean killing sea turtles (which is why I was exploring this as a solution to begin with).So it was a targeted experiment.
Save the turtle and over heat the world 15 minutes at a time , just ban plastic bags or charge a large deposit for them
That would be ideal arhivus! I was looking at gasifiers in Nepal recently and have toyed with the idea of pyrolytic gasification of plastics, but haven't found an easy way to build the gasifier yet to experiment. Another thing I was toying with after our India trip in 2009 was making biochar from plastic; I discussed this with Dr. Pria Karve who does biochar and she said there was no theoretical reason why not as long as one avoided PVC because of the toxic chlorine.
Since 2010 we have all learned about this. Yes, we can get the reusable totes from the grocery store, but they rot. And they don't wash well. I have found that taking a tank top, turning it inside out and sewing it twice along the bottom makes a great grocery tote. (Turn it right side out before using). Children can turn their old tank tops into bags, even decorating the outside! If you hate sewing, tie a knot in the bottom. They wash well! If they wear out, cut them into cleaning cloths.
About the plastic bags that my husband brings home, can we melt them in water? I don't want to deal with the oil?
I do think he should've given some suggestion as to what to do once it's all melted.
Many people need directions or even an incentive to reuse waste.
(not saying I'm one of them... indeed at all) ;-)
you can melt it and put into a mold for things you might buy such as cups, plates, pots for plants. if you have too many simply put the excess on amazon or ebay. You could always mold a compost bin which would allow you to recycle your paper and food waste. Plastic, paper and food waste make up 75% of what you throw away. That simply leaves you metal and glass. You could have a kiln and learn glass blowing to recycle that glass into windows or solar panels and learn metal casting to turn that excess metal into cooking pans and eating utensils.
if you drop them off at drop off points, they melt them down any way. probably in a much more efficient fashion, and they also reuse the plastic
yeah i agree with Tornlegorf,hemp in an amasing material,in the early days they made currency notes,plaster reinforcing,plumbers used it on threaded steel pipe.
I am in oz and its widely used here even clothing is made here from hemp,you can even smoke it.
it's not so stupid if he can sell it. A shrunken plastic bag chunk is more valuable for buyers of recycled materials than the bags as-is.
I love this idea, thank you! Do you have an image of what the melted down plastic that you're making would look like? Just curious, before I buy a cheap deep frying to do this.
There are some solar electric power plants that use concentrated sunlight and a synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is used for the heat transmission. example:Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) in California, USA, (Kramers Junction)
A concentrated sunlight smelter with a natural oil could be placed on pacific islands to melt the collected garbage into blocks that would be harmless to the wildlife.
All of his patio furniture and the watering containers are plastic. He is really supporting the plastics industry.
This guy is suggesting to melt plastic in your home with no clues of the side effects or the possibility of the plastic outgassing.........DONT DO THIS PEOPLE....THIS IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND MAYBE DANGEROUS!!
When it cools, what is it? Just a big plastic block? Could these be used in some way, like they use bottle bricks for building?
Well intentioned no doubt. I don't get the point of the excercise though - unless you wish to dispose of the bags in the ocean. If you don't have recycling facilities in your community, lobbying for them is a way forward. These bags are fully recyclable in their original form and anyone who would put bags through this process would surely sort their waste for recycling. I applaud and support your aims - just not your method. The earth needs more people like you!
@DarvinCarvin You could densify easier by baking in the oven 30 minutes at 300 °F, but the resulting material is not recoverable. There is equipment to turn the bags into pellets, but it is $ hundreds of thousands. The recycled hdpe resin has a value in pellet form of about 40 ¢ per lb. 91 bags per pound. Need to collect in a way that does not comingle other types of plastic that needs to be sorted, or dirt that needs to be washed. If you did that locally you might be able to make it pay.
I'm looking into reuse of plastic. Does the plastic come out in a liquid or soft form or do you have to wait till the oil cools before you can take it out? Could I press it into a mold and make plastic objects?
U can do a lot with plastics ,like make tiles
Make roads, homes buildings etc
I would like to know what the "constant temperature" is. This is a good idea but a slightly flawed instructional video. You need to show the container, show the oil, show the temperature...
I was at Fred Meyers (grocery store) in Bellingham, Washington, USA and just inside the door was a bench, much like any other park bench, except this one had a label attached to it that read: This bench was made from XXX plastic milk cartons" (I don't remember the number of cartons). This bench was made in 2 different shades of brown (light and dark brown), it was very study, quite smooth, looked like a park bench, and was beautiful.
Ever since seeing that bench I thought what a fantastic idea! How did they do that and why don't they share the know-how. I have never been much of an ego-friendly guy, but seeing that bench really got me thinking about the possibilities.
I'd like to see someone make something remarkable and durable from old plastic bags.
Re thought my comment. Read my others.
It is called -- 9 Year Old Turns Plastic Bottles Into Benches !
Do a search for it or probably just look at the video list on the right side of your screen.
Even if you are an environmental douche-bag, even if you never recycle anything- ever. Even if you hate turtles. This method REDUCES waste and saves money on trash pick-up.
Simple
Hello
I was delighted to see a technique for this. I was wondering how strong the plastic is once it is melted. I have a few ideas I want to develop, and have you tried to melt these bags using a heat gun and placing the bags into something so that they could all bind into one mass. Any help would be very appreciated.
@Anirias I haven't experienced any fumes of note melting the plastic in cooking oil. We've tried this indoors as well as outdoors. Give it a try yourself and see.
After watching this video I had a couple of questions for you. First what do you thing about people dicing up the bags to a size similar to confetti then placing in the garbage? Second, would these bags you melted be of danger to landfill foragers to mistake them as food since the oil will likely have a strong scent of whatever food was fried with it? Stray dogs and other animals could die after eating the plastic.
After it hardens, can the plastic now be recycled in the normal recycling bin? Finding a grocery store around here that accepts plastic bags is waaayy more difficult than it should be! i always use reusable bags but my room mates are either too lazy or just can’t be bothered with using reusable bags and i refuse to throw them all in the garbage (there is now a small mountain of them)
And who doesn't like a good "poached" egg every now and then? :)
You can drop plastic bags off at most walmarts and they recycle them
Obviously isn't going to actually catch the bags that reasonably WOULD get into the ocean, so is completely a waste of time and energy. 100x more effective to CATCH the bags getting into the ocean. ONE of those is more important than melting 10,000 that wouldn't.
FAR more practical is to sample all life, and help it along a little. It is ridiculously more efficient to make a few more turtles than anything else.
In Rwanda, it's illegal to have plastic bags. If they find them in your luggage at the airport, they'll take it away from you.
I don't know what they did for their land, but the land both in the city (Kigali) and in the countryside is pristine! Then you cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the scenery takes a nosedive! Trash everywhere. And indifference too.
I can't possibly see why anyone would want to bother to fire up a grill for 15 minutes and feed it grocery bags. In developed cities, why not just have recycle bins? And in under-developed cities, I'm sure everyone would rather just burn the bags (try stopping them. pointless).
Wow, now if only they can get rid of that pesky genocide problem!
tie waste bags into a knot. send for recycling. don't use 3kw of energy to melt them
Really? I'm not for any animal dying but only those of us that already properly dispose of plastic bags would do this. The trash you see in the oceans, beach's etc. That's still going to be there because those people won't do this.
@100msw Sorry, I didn't properly explain -- obviously in the set up I was using, where the can of oil is contiguous with the fryer's oil via the holes in the can, there could be cross contamination. But what I normally have is a melting can that is isolated from the main body of cooking oil which is only used to regulate the temperature and keep it at the right heat for rapid melting without fumes. Then there is no effect on the cooking oil outside the melting can. Is that so silly? :)
does this thing hardens
@Thomas H. Culhane, what type of oil did you use? Cooking oil? How high did you fill the slow cooker with oil? How did you extract the can? How did you make home in the can? Did you turn off the slow cooker first before pulling the can out? How did you get the plastic out of the can when you were done? What did you do with the melted plastic when you were done with it?
I like the video, and I like the idea. I am going to do it just the way it is on the video.
I would like to get some experience in it.
There are lots of plastics in the ocean, example: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Garbage is showing up on the pacific islands, example: Midway Islands, and the plastic is dangerous to the albatross birds.
15 minutes of energy consumption! Another enviro problem.
si pero sete olvido desir que tipo de aseite comestivle o automotris muchas grasias asmelo saver
Hi Thomas,
Thank you for your video. I'm interested in using plastic bags to make neat things (possibly on a large scale). I appreciate you sharing. This was helpful to me.
arent you disgrading the polymeres with such a hight temperature?
Cool video TH! Thanks
you could accomplish the same thing by just tying the bag in four or five tight knots. No heat No mess
@tculhane If you cared you would not use plastic bags at all, most places still have paper bags on request and there are key chain shopping bags available for purchase.
If there is a proper recycling program available in the community then it should be nearly impossible for plastic bags to get into the ocean.I appreciate your effort, but the energy wasted in this process is as equally destructive to the environment by the resource consumption. People need to try more to use their own bags and avoid using plastic bags to begin with.The governments should have a 50 cent tax per bag to discourage their use and then put this to environmental protection projects
No! the energy expended does not justify doing this - Recycle, so its done in a proper facility.
What is the role of the can?
Okay I have a better and easier solutions, Take all those bags, and all of your bottles, glass plastic whatever containers you use up, and gather them in one place, pack as many plastic bags as you can fit into each container. When you have a truck load of packed containers, go to those tin shacks in the shantytowns you mentioned, and insulate their walls by packing them with the containers, and stucco over with cement,clay, dung and straw, whatever is handy. Two birds one stone.
Read my other comment, I am sure you or someone else in Kenya can use this; whether your region is hot, cold, damp, or just really windblown everyone can benefit from a four or more inches of insulation that will never break down.
UM, take them back to the store and put them in the recycle bin.
reuse them when you go back to the store.
My first step is to decide if I really need to use the bags. More than once I have carried a few items out under my arms.
Which leads me back to planning your buying. And taking the bags you have with you.
There is no reason to put yourself out like that. High wattage cooker sucking on the power lines to reduce our carbon foot print. What wait a minute? And dont risk burning your self. Hot plastic doesnt come off easily or leave a pretty scar.
Stewardship is Proactive.
Ummm I'm not going do it like that. But I'll help save the turtles 😜👍🏻👍🏻
can u make a you tube and show us how to make them please. I use reusable cloth bags for grocery but I bring back plastic bag for garbage and other uses at home. I have seen grocery store just dumping recyclable back in the garbage. Even today lot of plastic don't really recycle. Please go look around and find recyclable plants for plastic. We have a plastic plant but they don't take comunity plastic to reuse. They just use the polymer they buy to make new products.
too much waste of energy, innit? with the little flame of a lighter, same could be done in a second...but why go the easy way, when there is a tough one? ;)
It is about saving the turtles. I once saw a turtle in the pacific with 6 pack plastic stuck on it. Broke my heart when the captain laughed and kept cruising.
@iamaGod357 I think it is more stupid to contribute to the extinction of large charismatic marine mammals like sea turtles that have been on earth for tens of millions of years simply because we are too lazy to take care of our own wastes at home. The so-called "negative externalities" that you produce everytime you go shopping are causing great harm. Go see the film "The Age of Stupid" to understand what is truly stupid -- forfeiting our children's future out of callous indifference.
usefull info, thanks
Brilliant idea you deserve a big reward
You're wasting a hell of a lot of energy to melt them.
A 20$ wagner heat gun is more efficient.
This is not safe.
NICE IDEA but one you are making bad fumes
This is dangerous. Do you know how easy is to get third degree burns from oil?
This is a joke right? Seriously he must be joking!!!
This is a joke...
1fumes
2 oil being missed used
3Electric or gas to power the frying
4 not safe
5 disposing melted plastic with oil 6
For a better idea, earn to reuse and upcycle plastic bags for other uses. Their is no need to distroy material that can still be useful.
Did you record this with a potato?
If you care about the environment then you wouldnt be wasting time, electricity and oil on doing dumb stuff. Dropping off plastic as a melt plant that repurposes into plastic boards and other building materials is a much more logical approach....
If you have a renewable source of energy this is okay but my energy is made from Dirty browncoal. A community recycling effort would be better for the environment, solar or wind powered.
makes sense
While I admire your trying to find a solution please understand the energy used was from focil fuels which releases co2. Looking for a safe chemical method #Live3d as a group.
Or you could jyst recycle them
some places that collect recyclables don't actually recycle them, it depends on the market. Some waste materials are sold and can get sold overseas or end up not being recycled due to cost.
the idea that everything you put in a recycling bin gets recycled is just naïve.
@tculhane - I wish you were on Google+. In kind I look forward to trying this out for myself. Time to find a deep fryer. I like this idea as it will give me the ability to convert my plastic waste into something I can reuse for another purpose.
So force them to do something they don't want to do okay, pretend I'm a law maker, I want to satify a small group that have wealth. The only way I can do that is make one thing say Soybeans expensive and difficult to grow because laws and make corn cheap as dirt, people may not want to but in your universe forcing someone to do something if they want to or not is okay. what is better is to introduce programs on recycling and properly (none propaganda) educate them on why they should.
What if the war heads said the same? dont worry about saving the innocent people, just sample some humans and make some mor'...lol... that would be tragic
Use reusable bags. They don't use electricity, cause trash, etc. This is an expensive dumb idea.
@iamaGod357 If you are a God, you would do something to keep your waste from getting into other peoples faces too.
1. burning plastic creates air pollution
2. burning plastic releases poisonous substances that cause cancer
3. your deep fryer is now broken, what you going to do about it? I am sure it has plastic materials on it
4. say your TV or computer monitor broke, i like to see you fit that in there...
*****
Well as you stated my main point is point two, release of poisonous substance, but your reply focused on point one, air pollution. And I dont smoke, cause I know it's bad for me, so whe would I go about doing something that releases as much bad substances as a cigarette if they are equally bad?
Jack North *****
My point still stands... It is the melting from the process that released the toxic.
" Plastic is melted during the recycling process, which causes it to break down and release the chemicals used to make it. ... problems resulting from exposure to and inhalation of toxic fumes"
www.eurekarecycling.org/page.cfm?ContentID=126
" DO NOT BURN OR MELT PLASTIC."
m.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/02/1096855/-PSA-Burning-Plastic-Can-Kill-You
Not sure what you guys want to say, but go google and search why not to melt plastic... Like c'mon, common sense here... Now you learn it I guess...
*****
Hey, if you want to do it in your own house without going to cause more pollution of any kind and waste resources, by all mean go ahead, no one will say anything about it. There are people who enjoy smelling melting plastic, I ain't gonna stop you.
My point isn't to stop anyone doing anything that would kill themselves, by all means, it's your life, I am purely stating a very common knowledge to those who might not k of about it.
Seriously, people who don't know what bad this bring to your health, research first before doing. Decisions are yours.
*****
The stress is on the "Do it in your own house and make sure the chemical don't affect your neighbours", if dunno how to get rid of the smell, then your lung might need to do some chemical inhaling, that's all. Peace.
I agree with you 99% and the 1% is only because I am wondering if the oil is producing light smoke. They "say" they are only melting the bags and not burning them so there are no fumes?