Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and...
by x0b4dc0d3 on Thursday January 15, 2026 @07:44PM
(#46641607)
Source? These are big claims and the collective shouldn’t rely on your recall as fact.
Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and...
by ta20240528 on Friday January 16, 2026 @12:45AM
(#46643364)
"Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals"
Not of plastic - recycling rates are decreasing. This is largely due to the excess ethane begin produced as a by-product of US fracking.
The ethane is converted to ethylene, then to polyethylene as a cost below that of collecting, cleaning, and processing used plastic.
Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and...
by specialist on Friday January 16, 2026 @09:06PM
(#46654603)
True. The situation for both off-gassing and plastic recycling is rather bleak.
Sorry for being vague; I was only referring to economically valuable minerals used in electric batteries.
Aqua Metals has previously said they'll be able to reuse battery quality graphite (from batteries) as well (vs releasing it as CO2). But my recent scan of their progress wasn't very encouraging.
Learning more about Redwood Recycling stack is on my to do list.
Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals (and will continue to improve).
The learning curves for battery and solar tech will more than make up the for the shortfall.
Meaning at some point in the near future (2050 IIRC), humanity will have mined all the lithium it'll ever need.
Also, in the same time frame, it'll be economical to mine our garbage dumps. Further reducing the need to extract raw materials.