this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
49 points (93.0% liked)

Science

12988 readers
111 users here now

Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Researchers at Virginia Tech have found a way to upcycle plastic into soap. Around 120 grams to 130 grams of plastic can make 100 grams of soap.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Why would anybody want that? We already have a problem with microplastics getting into our system. How is turning plastic into soap going to make that better?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

@NocturnalMorning @number6 Well, chemistry being what it is, if you turn it into soap it's not a plastic anymore, it's a soap.

Neither a plastic nor a soap are strictly defined categories, but still,

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I find it hard to believe there are zero plastics left after the process. I'd like to see the paper on the process. Always appreciate condescending comments though. So, thanks for that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@NocturnalMorning I mean, a lot of people have genuinely no idea what a plastic or a soap is, but they're both hard to define and explain in 500 characters, so I'm forced into "they're different and chemistry fundamentally changes things."

Given the general soap vs plastic chemical property list, it should be fairly easy to do a clean-up once you've got your polar component onto your soap. Some kind of oil-water extraction should work great. It all depends heavily on specifics, of course.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)