cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41907712
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?
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.
