• @MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    531 month ago

    I am curious at how many of these pointless reports are going to be made. I have seen countless reports like this and at the end of the day we are drowning in plastic.

  • DrSleepless
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    281 month ago

    Looking forward to having that in my balls as well as microplastics

  • @BillDaCatt@lemmy.world
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    161 month ago

    I’m skeptical of this for two reasons.

    1. The thing that makes plastic as a building material so useful is that it takes forever to degrade. Biodegradable building materials seems like it would be counterproductive and make the problem worse, not better.

    2. So far, every time some new variety of biodegradable plastic comes along, it turns out to be a big fat lie.

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      01 month ago

      Wood is biodegradable. But biodegradable doesn’t mean “constantly degrading.” Wood is good for centuries as long as it is kept dry. A great deal of building technique is about ensuring that, so you can use this light, strong material that literally grows on trees.

  • Luffy
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    131 month ago

    Now those woke scientists are making transgender wood /s

  • @PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works
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    131 month ago

    How much transparent plastic do you have as a building material in your house? Because we already have a non-plastic alternative - it’s called glass. And that’s what ALL the clear surfaces are in my house envelope.

  • candyman337
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    1 month ago

    Vacuum chamber transparent wood filled with resin. Ok yeah sure that’ll “replace plastics”

    If you’d like a real demo of what this article is talking about check out this NileRed video

    https://youtu.be/uUU3jW7Y9Ak

    • @Fondots@lemmy.world
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      71 month ago

      I also assumed that was the process here, but from the article this does seem to be something slightly different. Overall process seems to be roughly the same, but they’re using biodegradable materials instead of resin, apparently a mix of egg white and “rice extract”

      Now I’m personally skeptical about how long-lasting something made from egg and rice can be, although I guess there are still tempera paintings (tempera paint is made from egg yolks) around from the Renaissance, so what the hell do I know?

      And the chemicals used to strip the lignin from the wood aren’t exactly the most environmentally friendly, but I guess arguably they’re better than some of the ones used in plastic production.

    • @MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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      41 month ago

      But we should, because plastic is made of oil. And that oil goes CO², be it because it’s burned or because it rots away in nature.

        • @MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          There are many cases where a chemical had to be entirely replaced with a more targeted or less damaging variant because of environmental considerations. Most prominent being CTFE, because it affected the ozone layer.

            • @MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              Yeah, bad example, i rewrote my answer.

              And yeah, i think so. Problem currently is, that alternatives are more expensive. That could be solved with oil production and export being appropriately taxed to the damages it causes.

  • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    61 month ago

    I’m gonna build a clear house like that to retire in just to make sure nobody buys any lots within viewing distance of my saggy old man balls.

  • @Grass@sh.itjust.works
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    21 month ago

    So far theres only 2 or 3 implementations of this and none of them biodegradable. In fact it expends biodegradable wood to make a non biodegradable material. Plus it just sucks flat out. Not a single implementation is suitable for production.

    • @Fondots@lemmy.world
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      41 month ago

      From the article it does sound like this one may actually be biodegradable, the other implementations I’ve seen involve stripping lignin from the wood and impregnating it with resin, which all hair-splitting aside is basically plastic with extra steps. This is apparently using egg whites and some kind of rice extract instead of resin, so I don’t see any reason this shouldn’t be biodegradable.

      Suitability for production and practical applications remain to be seen though.