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Upcycled plastic can be turned into soap, researchers find
(scrippsnews.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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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.
@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.