this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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You still need a lot of energy to recycle steel. Less than mining by far but still a lot.
In a sustainable world, energy can and should be cheaper than raw materials. We are only harvesting a tiny fraction of the solar energy hitting the earth, to say nothing of wind and geothermal power. Rolling out more renewables and energy storage and using some of the surplus power to switch from extracting new resources to recycling our waste would greatly lower our footprint.
But compared to plastic from virgin fossil fuels?
We as a society are going to need memory cards.
What do you think they should be made out of?
chitin
Sorry, that’s not Kosher.
Need to be examined on e case by case basis but plastic often comes out aheadi
If you penny pinch and don’t want to pay the environmental cost, sure plastic might come out cheaper.
But when you take into account the triple bottom line, plastic comes out behind.
Plastic in a landfill is a lot less harmful than co2 in the atmosphere.
Which is why you use renewable green energy.
Sure but do you have any proof they are doing that? some places are really good and others really bad. Overall my guess is iron is still worse than plastic but there are exceptions.