Captain's Phlog                                    2020.03.03
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Talking about Actually RECYCLING Plastic (LDPE in this case)

"Most plastic is only reprocessed once before it goes to a 
landfill.  "Downcycling" is a more accurate term than 
"recycling" when it comes to plastic.  Unlike glass or 
paper, plastic recycling does not "close the loop" because 
most post consumer bottles are not made into new plastic 
bottles.  Instead, milk jugs, soda containers and other 
bottles are turned into lower-grade products such as jacket 
fill, fleece, carpet, toys or plastic lumber. None of these 
products are in-turn recyclable.  Therefore the recycling 
process only delays the plastics disposal.  The final 
destination for all plastic is either a landfill, where it 
does not decompose, or an incinerator, where it can release 
harmful chemicals into the atmosphere when burned."

This isn't a post about 'doing the right thing' it's about 
looking at some applied science and craft concerning 
plastics (specifically LDPE in this case). I know you're a 
pretty sharp cookie - You must be - You're using Gopher fer 
Christsakes! You already know that those little triangles 
denote different TYPES of plastic. Different compounds that 
have very different properties.

Those symbols are useful for sure. But sadly they're not 
ubiquitous. Take a personal example: Bread bags from Aldis. 
They're unmarked. What are they? What do you do with them? 
Immaterial. My waste service says to chuck them. In fact 
that's what most services in the US do. Plastic sheeting 
fouls their machines it would seem. They pull it out and 
send it to a landfill. So what can we do with stuff of 
unknown composition? Can it be USED?

Here [1] is an interesting read about household plastics in 
general and a grade school science class lab that sorts 
unknown plastics with a density column. But this is beyond 
our needs. What I did was just dive right in! There are a 
number of videos on YouMonetize about processing HDPE (milk 
jugs, etc) but not much on LDPE (bags & sheeting) so I went 
into this mostly blind.

Most every bread bag seems to be made from the same stuff as 
any bread bag. If it's tacitly VERY different it's likely 
you're looking at some different composition, beware. My 
initial judgment call comes from the fact that I'm a comic 
geek. There are two types of comic bags "Polypropylene" and 
"Polyethylene". The latter seem equivalent to bread bags and 
this was my initial assumption.

Making Sheets:

Lay down a sheet of parchment paper over a terrycloth towel 
on a hard surface. Lay out several layers of bread bags on 
top of each other. Cover with another layer of parchment. 
Using an iron on medium heat, press firmly over the entire 
surface constantly moving the iron at a slow steady speed. 
After about 30 seconds ( assuming your work-piece is ~1' or 
~30cm square ) peal back the parchment, turn the sheet over, 
and repeat.

Check your work. You should have a pretty well fused sheet 
composed of several layers of bread bags. I layed out 
a pattern for a crude bill fold and trimmed the sheet to 
size. I sealed the ends. To do this insert a piece of 
parchment inside where you want the bills to go (so the 
whole wallet doesn't stick shut) and iron the fold so it 
stays folded. Finally, turn the iron on Medium-High and iron 
the two sides to weld them together - Just like before, but 
on higher heat, and with the edge of the iron.

I would show you a picture... but this is Gopher after all 
and I do LOVE my pure text.  :-D   That's it for now. Take 
chances and get messy!

[1] http://www.nclark.net/Density_Column.pdf

0x04 [EOT]