51
Upcycled plastic can be turned into soap, researchers find
(scrippsnews.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
51 points (93.2% liked)
Science
13017 readers
10 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
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?
@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,
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.
Well they literally say there's none left. Their comment wasn't condescending. You kind of just asked a dumb question.
Not a dumb question at all. It's completely reasonable to want to know if there will be microplastics left over in the process.
@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.