MetaFilter posts tagged with plastics

Just one word - Plastics

Antidisestablishmentarianist — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:26:51 -0800

Even if cars soon start running entirely on electricity or hydrogen, they'll still need 100 gallons or more of oil to make their plastic parts...

Got a crafting urge all bottled up?

orange swan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:20:52 -0800

Even though you recycle the plastic you discard, you sometimes feel guilty about how much you throw out and worry about where it's going. Would you like to be a little more hands on and proactive and recycle some of your plastics yourself? If so, I've got some ideas for you. Do those used plastic gift cards always seem too pretty to just throw away? You can make guitar picks or jewelry from them. You can make beads out of plastic and make even more jewelry. If you'd like to make some home furnishing and décor items, you can make lamps from milk jugs or water bottles. If you'd prefer a pendant light, that's an option too. If you've got the ceiling height and live near an ocean, you can make a “Tide Chandelier” like artist Stuart Haygarth, who made this chandelier from mostly plastic objects he found on the beach. If you've been ordering in a lot lately, you might make a chandelier like this one out of your plastic spoons. You could also make some interesting candlesticks and containers from plastic bottles, or a dish out of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. If you want extra green points, you could grow your own food in this self-watering plastic bottle planter. Or you could just make some plastic flowers that don't need watering at all. Your children might enjoy making butterflies or a bottle bank, making and racing “robottles”, or some of the plastic bottle top games and crafts listed on ehow. If you like to fish perhaps you could use a minnow bottle. More ideas for recycling plastic containers can be found here, and you can also check out this list of 12 practical ways to recycle plastic lids. If you're more of an artist than a crafter, you could take your cue from Heath Nash's plastic bottle designs or sculptures, or Aurora Robson's gallery of plastic bottle sculptures, or Kosuke Tsumura's “Bottle Armor” or “Bustle Style” works. And whatever recycled plastic craft or art project you undertake, rest assured that you're not at all likely to run out of supplies.

Welding Plastic

Tube — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:57:48 -0800

Most people are familiar with welding metal, but it’s entirely possible to weld plastic. There are a surprising number of ways to weld plastic, but first you will need to identify what kind it is. The smell of burning plastic is a particularly effective diagnostic. This man is welding with hot air. Many instructional videos are made by companies whose products are featured in the video, like this somewhat surreal demonstration of speed tip welding. Perhaps the most low-tech method is with a soldering iron.

Would I like it? What a DREAM! But hey, what happens if I push this red button?

miss lynnster — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:03:38 -0800

In the early 1950's, Monsanto Chemical Company, MIT and Disneyland collaborated their resources and creative brainpower to build "the house of 1986." Using 30,000 pounds of plastic (The building's structure, carpet, chairs, sinks, appliances and floors were all plastic. About $7,500 to $15,000 worth.), the Monsanto House of the Future* was opened to an excited public in June of 1957. It was closed in 1967 as ideas of the future were beginning to change. Let's take a quick tour, shall we?
*(Not to be confused with Xanadu Homes of Tomorrow.) Indirectly related. From this page: In June of 1957, Disneyland opened Monsanto's House of the Future. It remained for 10 years, finally closing in 1967 with the remodeling of Tomorrowland. In it's short run, more than 20 million visitors got a glimpse of what the future home may include. Such innovations included insulated glass walls, picture telephones, plastic chairs, microwave ovens, speaker phones and electric toothbrushes. The house included three bedrooms, two baths, a living room, a dining room and a family room. Some inventions never came to a reality (yet), including ultrasonic dishwashers, foam-backed plastic floor coverings, atomic food preservation and plastic sinks with adjustable heights. Upon entering the home, a voice would state "Welcome to Monsanto's Home of the Future", and continue to cover the details of construction, which was almost entirely of plastics. Monsanto sponsored the exhibit, but the house itself was built at MIT and remained at Disneyland until it was demolished. A giant wrecking ball was brought in, but bounced off the sturdy plastic construction. A crew of several men had to go in and demolish it by hand, dragging most of it away. Unfortunately, none of the original building was ever salvaged. From this link:
The house was a hit for people visiting the park, but Monsanto's plans for their prefab home were a complete flop. The aesthetics of a giant, floating plastic X just weren't palatable to the general public. Monsanto quickly dropped any plans of selling the design and settled with just leaving it as an attraction. When it came time to tear it down in 1967, Disneyland ran into a problem: the house was too well constructed! The wrecking ball they had brought in just bounced harmlessly off the plastic walls. Eventually, each wing had to be pulled off the main core by cables and taken apart by hand. The main core, however, had to be slowly beaten away with pickaxes and shovels. Each small piece dragged away, and not a single one salvaged for history.

The Faces of War

chrisbucks — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:08:50 -0800

The Faces of War, a fascinating document of the prosthetic masks used to cover serious facial injuries from the battlefield. Before plastic surgery was widely practised and used to reconstruct the horrific facial injuries of the First World War soldiers, men with the most serious facial injured were often hidden away from society.

Men such as those recorded in watercolour, and in pastels (warning: some may find these images disturbing); patients of Harold Gillies, pioneer of facial reconstruction at Queen's Hospital, Sidcup, the wars major centre for facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.

Little Beauty

MetaMonkey — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:41:24 -0800

Loes Modderman's Science Art
Beautiful microscopic art, often striking similar to some modern art. Dig the abstract crystal images: cholesterol, crystal landscapes, vitamin c is psychedelic. Explore the sands of the world! Bubbles are pretty, plastics rock, fluids are minimalist. (via)

Mold A Rama!

Juicylicious — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:27:48 -0800

Mold A Rama! Remember those plastic lions, tigers and gorillas? How about an Abraham Lincoln bust or locomotive? You remember those machines where you stuck a quarter in and watched as 250 degree plastic was pumped into a mold and then automotive antifreeze was hosed in to supposedly cool the mold before the animal was pushed into the compartment below for your waiting hands. Remember the burnt plastic smell? Those really hot to-the-touch animals that you wore down your parents until they gave you a quarter animals are not just simply things from your fading memory. Uh uh, new molds are being made even today. Not good enough you say? Then buy your very own vintage Mold A Rama for a mere $9,500!

Chat Room

mcgraw — Fri, 07 May 2004 09:30:12 -0800

Microscopic fragments of plastic are a "major pollutant", floating in the ocean, settling on seabeds, and washing up onshore - with unknown consequences for marine ecosystems, according to a new study. "We've found this microscopic plastic material at all of the sites we've examined," [lead researcher] Dr Richard C Thompson [of University of Plymouth, UK] said. "Interestingly, the abundance is reasonably consistent. So, it suggests to us that the problem is really quite ubiquitous."

kliuless — Mon, 17 Dec 2001 16:31:24 -0800

Plastics! A new revolution in packaging, "By some measures, films made of metallocene-based polyethylenes can have two to three times the tensile strength, five times the impact strength, and twice the tear strength of a traditional polymer. That allows users to make much thinner films and parts, saving on everything from plastic resin to transport costs."

ritualdevice — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 14:28:51 -0800

One word...Plastics. New techniques for restoring bones. Speaking of broken bones, is everyone else dreading the full media coverage of Ronald Reagan's slow liquefaction over the next several years.