Environmental Impact of our hobby.

[alvinlwh 5894]

2 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

and at the same time often took away the stack of cardboard boxes

Oh that's mean of them! My local Tesco and Lidl actually stack them up for customers use.

[BuggyDad 4460]

20 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Oh that's mean of them! My local Tesco and Lidl actually stack them up for customers use.

Mainly they do. But I asked at a waitrose and they said they were crushing them all for environmental reasons. When I asked specifically they did find me some, but I do think they're making an environmental error there and it's an example of a classic fallacy about recycling. Personally I also think a box is often a great way to transport groceries. On reflection, I ought to give them some feedback - this was perhaps not the intention of the powers that be. 

[kontemax 1725]

On 12/12/2022 at 10:12 PM, Busdriver said:

Not sure I get this comment let alone the humour?

Different cultural background.

Max

 

[Wooders28 4722]

13 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Having worked in waste to energy projects before, I believe one of the best way to recycle plastic is to burn them for energy. Why? They are made from oil and oil is burnt for energy generation anyway. So why not?

Where i work, every bit of energy ,is extracted from our waste . But even with the boilers exhaust running through wesp/esp's and then that waste ran through a vacuum evaporation system, there's still inevitably waste that needs to leave site, and presumably is just buried (it's really expensive to get removed, and only a few companies in the country have the license to dispose) ,and as anything of use has been extracted, its toxic, concentrated (?) waste. 

We lump 'plastic' into one group, but as we know with some cheaper brand wishbones etc, all plastic just isn't the same.

Personally, i think we need to move towards the more reusable end, stuff that can be ground back into pellets, which can then be melted into useful items, a bit like we do with glass, just lighter..

[alvinlwh 5894]

Just had a thought. If Tamiya really cares about the environment, they will put quality parts into the kits instead of the trash that most of us throw out without even touching. Yes, I am talking about the big three. How many of you can remember how many plastic bushings, friction shocks and aluminium pinions you had not used/thrown out? I sure cannot.

Now, before anyone mention cost, while I am fairly new at this hobby, I had built a few other brands' kits and they all come with the big three as standard out of box and often even more. Yet they are cheaper than a comparable Tamiya kit.

Yet Tamiya keep getting away with pushing out overpriced kits with substandard parts that often got replaced immediately without even being used, knowing they will still be bought by consumers. Myself included guilty as charged.

[Fuijo 880]

This is a slightly tongue-in-cheek post, because it obviously makes so little difference it's barely worth mentioning. But I'm going to anyway....

I always keep the little plastic bags in the kits. That is, the ones closed with staples that can be re-stapled. I use them to keep odd leftover or unused parts in. I must have used about, oooh, less than 1% of them so far.

The rest annoy me every time I open my parts cupboard and have to move them out of the way.

I also keep all the off-cuts from trimming polycarbonate bodies in another bag too. These also annoy me for the same reason as the bags.

Another thing I keep is any parts I break during a build. Partly to remind me not to be impatient (because it's invariably caused by that when it happens), or just in case they come in handy for something.

All of the above is in many ways just a little bit unhinged, as I'm sure I'll be tripping over them all for the next couple of decades or so. But occasionally, just occasionally, they're actually useful for something.

 

This 36x6mm strip of polycarbonate and a leftover plastic spacer saved me from buying a new B sprue for my Novafox when I broke the rear bumper. Maybe several sprues if I keep breaking it, which is not unlikely with this motor.

It's a good fix too. Stronger than it was before. I could round off the corners and paint it black to make it pretty, but why bother on a runner.

 

 

When I first built my re-release Scorcher I broke the window glass trying to model an open driver's window, badly.

I used a small piece of it to make the HUD for this little guy.

 

I'm certainly not implying that everyone should keep all their off-cuts and leftovers. Sanity is probably more important than a tiny bit of recycling. Sometimes it works out tho'.

[Kowalski86 3030]

1 hour ago, Fuijo said:

This 36x6mm strip of polycarbonate and a leftover plastic spacer saved me from buying a new B sprue for my Novafox when I broke the rear bumper. Maybe several sprues if I keep breaking it, which is not unlikely with this motor.

It's a good fix too. Stronger than it was before. I could round off the corners and paint it black to make it pretty, but why bother on a runner.

 

 

When I first built my re-release Scorcher I broke the window glass trying to model an open driver's window, badly.

I used a small piece of it to make the HUD for this little guy.

 

I'm certainly not implying that everyone should keep all their off-cuts and leftovers. Sanity is probably more important than a tiny bit of recycling. Sometimes it works out tho'.

Thats pretty crafty! I tend to stash up wheel pins myself simple because I lose them so much.

[rich_f 233]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:54 PM, alvinlwh said:

Plastic bags replaced, like you said, blister packs that are made of much thicker plastic and cardboard, costing weight and volume, and a higher carbon/environmental cost in making. But as usual, plastic bags are seen as the devil even though they are far better than that they replaced.

Plastic bags certainly are better in many ways than what they replaced, but they aren't perfect by any means, so there must be something better.

The problem is what happens with them after they have been used (and since they are single use, they become 'used' very quickly). They get thrown away and then sit in the ground or work their way into the ocean for centuries. 

Single use plastic really has been a wonder product - it's cheap, lightweight and easy to work with, but don't you think it would be better if single-use, 'disposable' plastic didn't sit around in the environment forever, causing problems to animals and humans alike?

Plant-based plastics might be an option as a replacement for current petroleum-based single-use plastics, especially for plastic wraps and bags that will be immediately thrown away. They'll either degrade gracefully back into non-harmful components or if they are burned, they are at least from a renewable source. 

Another (perhaps better) option is to reduce their use. A lot of plastic is used in places it really doesn't need to be - I've seen cabbages wrapped in it... They have their own wrapping! We've not used cling film in our house for years now - and I really don't need a brand new plastic bag every time I go shopping. Thankfully this has largely stopped now (at least in Europe) but it still annoys me when people in front of me in the queue at the supermarket grab a load of new bags for their shopping, only then to take it out to their car... How hard is it to keep a few bags in your car!? And plastic bags are so light and take up such a tiny amount of space that you can easily keep one in a pocket in case you're out without your car and unexpectedly decide to buy something. There's really no excuse anymore not to reduce plastic usage. 

[alvinlwh 5894]

19 minutes ago, rich_f said:

Plastic bags certainly are better in many ways than what they replaced, but they aren't perfect by any means, so there must be something better.

The problem is what happens with them after they have been used (and since they are single use, they become 'used' very quickly). They get thrown away and then sit in the ground or work their way into the ocean for centuries. 

Single use plastic really has been a wonder product - it's cheap, lightweight and easy to work with, but don't you think it would be better if single-use, 'disposable' plastic didn't sit around in the environment forever, causing problems to animals and humans alike?

Plant-based plastics might be an option as a replacement for current petroleum-based single-use plastics, especially for plastic wraps and bags that will be immediately thrown away. They'll either degrade gracefully back into non-harmful components or if they are burned, they are at least from a renewable source. 

Another (perhaps better) option is to reduce their use. A lot of plastic is used in places it really doesn't need to be - I've seen cabbages wrapped in it... They have their own wrapping! We've not used cling film in our house for years now - and I really don't need a brand new plastic bag every time I go shopping. Thankfully this has largely stopped now (at least in Europe) but it still annoys me when people in front of me in the queue at the supermarket grab a load of new bags for their shopping, only then to take it out to their car... How hard is it to keep a few bags in your car!? And plastic bags are so light and take up such a tiny amount of space that you can easily keep one in a pocket in case you're out without your car and unexpectedly decide to buy something. There's really no excuse anymore not to reduce plastic usage. 

Until there is a better material, I rather go with plastic. Wrapping raw fish in newspaper like in the past? No thanks! Glass bottles of drinks? Imagine the weight! Yet they expect us to give up our cars and use public transport? Ha!

The sitting around harming everything problem is a disposal problem, I said before and I still say it again, burning them for energy is the best. Yes, there are still remains to dispose after burning, but surely it is better to dispose of it in a safe controlled manner than to just leave it in random locations to harm everything, or ship it halfway across the world for 'recycling' when it is in fact dumped into the ocean.

Plant based/bio plastics are useless, 2 or 3 are required to have the same strength as a normal bag. This had been reported plenty when they first came out and supermarkets withdrew it fast enough. Also on being biodegradable, pretty sure no one will want to have a rotting mess in their box new vintage Tamiya kit.

The plastic bag tax/fine annoys me greatly as I reuse them as rubbish bags. Luckily most of my local supermarket supply boxes for customers use. It is not difficult bringing out a bag, it is remembering to do so that is the problem.

[94eg! 834]

You are the carbon they want to reduce.