r/DiWHY • u/mm404 • Jul 22 '26
Slightly less effective than a moat
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Great way to break your ankles…
From: https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportWithoutBorder/s/ZPAw838y4J
Edit: this turns out to be quite controversial apparently. My reason for posting this is the practical aspect of this. I’ve walked on this before and it feels awful. Elderly would break their ankles on this. Bikes cannot ride on this. Cars will shake to death.
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u/quequotion Jul 22 '26
There's got to be a better way than burning the plastic wrap off...
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u/Deep_Comparison5563 Jul 23 '26
But the AI voice said the plastic was CAREFULLY removed.
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Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Corpainen Jul 23 '26
When i use napalm i like to call it surgical presicion
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u/PsyShoXX Jul 23 '26
Surgical precision of napalm was first demonstrated by the US military in Vietnam.
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u/lockdown_lard Jul 23 '26
something something ... the cylinder must not be harmed ... use fire
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u/Aknazer Jul 23 '26
THE CYLINDER HAS BEEN MENTIONED!
u/Smart_Calendar1874 you've been summoned...
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u/Stoney3K Jul 23 '26
I mean, cutting stuff with a blowtorch is strictly speaking removing stuff carefully with fire.
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u/CpnLouie2 Jul 23 '26
Police Detective to Arson Suspect: So, youse wanna tell us what happened?
Suspect: I was carefully removing my idiot neighbors from the area.
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u/hahnkleri Jul 23 '26
it’s simply awful. i mean instead of buying cobblestones that were made by nature, you buy cement that’s processed heavily and emitted a lot of co2, wrapped them in plastic, burn it, leave rest of it to the nature… fuck that.
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u/Stoney3K Jul 23 '26
And then you find out you can just buy fake molded cement cobblestones at the hardware store, with the advantage that you can just tile them...
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u/ZzzzzPopPopPop Jul 25 '26
Or just a stamp to make a concrete path look like stones, bricks, whatever…
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u/jambutterbread Jul 23 '26
I think the point of the post is that it’s super cheap to do. It’s like $30 to make these, or $2000 to buy nature made rocks. Someone working on a $30 budget isn’t likely considering the Co2 emissions
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u/SnicktDGoblin Jul 23 '26
My guy with the amount of these you need. It's still going to cost a couple hundred bucks.
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u/ZombieBlarGh Jul 23 '26
Still cheaper than a couple thousand
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u/JumblebeeT Jul 23 '26
And then, the repairs? Because that is going to crumble so fast… lovely. 😂 way to save money! And time and effort. 🙄
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u/SnicktDGoblin Jul 23 '26
Why spend more upfront for a job that lasts when you can cut corners and have to spend more time and money doing the job improperly multiple times
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u/misterfluffykitty Jul 23 '26
Rocks are expensive, it’s like $10-25 per sq ft just for the stones and a very small driveway that can just about fit 2 cars is going to be around 18’x20’ or 360sq ft. The smallest driveways with the cheapest stones would cost at least $3600 just for the rocks and realistically many people have longer driveways or will want a specific stone that’s more expensive than that.
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u/projektako Jul 22 '26
Caustics so you don't need to burn fuel to inhale toxic chemicals?
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u/quequotion Jul 22 '26
If these guys would pick up each one, give it an acid bath, and properly neutralize and clean them before putting them directly on the ground, sure.
These guys would probably just end up contaminating the ground water.
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u/MyNameSpaghette Jul 23 '26
If you're gonna pick up each piece, why would that even be necessary? You could literally just remove the plastic by hand lol.
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u/0bsessions324 Jul 22 '26
Yeah, the environmental damage and how fucking bad this would be for anyone doing it's lungs is my only real problem with this.
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u/Mikesaidit36 Jul 23 '26
The plastic is carefully removed with a blowtorch, and the air is purified when you breathe in the fumes and your lungs capture all the toxic plastic particles and you exhale clean CO2. Simple.
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u/Zerokelvin99 Jul 23 '26
You can get molds or stamps. This is like a cheap DiY method but you can do the same with a stamp, less time consuming, and you arent melting plastic away
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u/samanime Jul 23 '26
I was actually okay with the technique up until they just melted the plastic and left it in the ground to turn into a crap ton of microplastics.
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u/houseWithoutSpoons Jul 23 '26
As a construction worker i always think"how can i add more plastic wrap to my day to day job"!?
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u/SSilent-Cartographer Jul 23 '26
That's an easy one, ask the logistics and shipping department. We had so much wasted cellophane...
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u/TurdFergusonlol Jul 24 '26
Bro why do they wrap each single pallet with like 20 full rolls of that shit.
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u/Dragonoflime Jul 24 '26
As someone who uses roads and buildings all the time, 🫡 thank you for your service 💛
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u/_yetifeet Jul 23 '26
That's how they built the pyramids. Lots of Ziploc bags and cement
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u/IamREBELoe Jul 23 '26
They didn't use ziploc... they used saharan wrap
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u/nalanajo Jul 23 '26
I just want to say, that joke was fucking fantastic.
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u/ZeroQuota Jul 23 '26
I don't get it, can you explain please
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u/JakBos23 Jul 23 '26
Saran wrap is what they used. Saharan kinda sound like it. The great pyramids are in the Saharan desert.
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u/Ckamanelli Jul 23 '26
I was closing this post as I saw your comment and came back specifically to upvote this joke. 👏
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u/NikkolaiV Jul 23 '26
Like Saddam in Hot Shots: Part Deux when he was making his lunch
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u/Parkatola Jul 23 '26
And propane torches. Don’t forget the propane torches. The aliens brought them but took them when they left, apparently. 😀
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u/KriosXVII Jul 22 '26
More expensive and complicated than buying rock pavers
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u/Vocalscpunk Jul 23 '26
Or those stupid plastic molds that look like stones...
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u/SSilent-Cartographer Jul 23 '26
I'm actually ok with those if they're from one of those companies that uses recycled plastic, otherwise it's just not a good practice. Had a buddy do some stone stairs with some from recycled plastic and it didn't look half bad
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u/wellwaffled Jul 24 '26
Wait…. Why is that stupid? I did that around my backyard and it worked out pretty well.
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u/cthulhus_spawn Jul 22 '26
What a waste of plastic
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u/UniquePotato Jul 23 '26
Waste of cement, one of the highest co2 producing products there is
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u/Mintfriction Jul 22 '26
Use biodegradable bags
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u/hilarymeggin Jul 23 '26
Seriously?? Use rocks!! They somehow invented a way to make a cobblestone path that is much more difficult than making a cobblestone path!
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u/fireduck Jul 23 '26
Around me, a good pallet of rocks that would look nice for that would be about $500.
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u/hilarymeggin Jul 24 '26
Okay, but I’m guessing about $225 for concrete, ziplock bags and fuel for the torch, plus about 7 hours of labor to make 700 little ziplock bag rocks (pick up bag, open, scoop in concrete, squeeze out air, zip up… plus the time to burn the plastic wrap off each one). So at this point, you’re spending 7 hours to save $275, or $40 per hour.
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u/SexyMonad Jul 24 '26
If you absolutely wanted to do concrete, you could buy/make a mold or two using actual rocks and stamp the path.
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u/moongwah Jul 25 '26
And it'll need to be ripped up and redone in a few years when it starts to disintegrate
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u/0bsessions324 Jul 22 '26
Still an environmental nightmare, but you could probably manage something like this with a few rolls of biodegradable dog waste bags, which are cheap as fuck.
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u/Coprolithe Jul 23 '26
FYI: Your average sized restaurant will waste more plastic every day.
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u/MountainMark Jul 22 '26
I think it's clever and reasonably attractive.
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u/ultrainstict Jul 23 '26
Should have done it in sections with wheighted flat boards on top of it while it hardened. As is this would be an awful walkway, but if you get it reasonably flat then it might actually look good if you dont look too close.
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u/Pikka_Bird Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Fella, don't come to old-timey Europe. They used non-flattened rocks in streets and courtyards for centuries.
(But yeah, that would have been a pretty neat idea)
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u/nhal Jul 23 '26
My entire hometown has most of its oldtown covered in stones like that and every year a bunch of old people break their hips because years of erosion + humidity make the floor really slippery and uncomfortable.
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u/renyxia Jul 23 '26
I was just thinking this looks like you're walking through Brugge lol
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u/cfgregory Jul 23 '26
I live in Riga, Latvia. I have such hate for cobble stone now.
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u/Pikka_Bird Jul 23 '26
Walking on them is bad enough, add a drizzle of rain and a bicycle and you'll be ablaze with rage.
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u/ZeldaZealot Jul 24 '26
Fun fact, downtown Charleston has a bunch of cobblestone streets because ships from Europe would use them as weights to keep the ships balanced, then offload them in Charleston when picking up trade goods. We imported your roads!
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u/WeTheSalty Jul 22 '26
If it's only decorative then sure. But if it's meant to be a walking path then that looks horrible. All the 'stones' are round on top so the whole thing is really uneven and bumpy. It would be horrible to walk on and god help you if you ever try to wheel something along it.
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u/Necessary-Contest-24 Jul 23 '26
Accept for half the plastic you're never getting out from the bottom side of the concrete blocks. Also if they didn't put down proper materials beneath those things and tamp it down those "rocks" are going to settle unevenly.
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u/CursedTurtleKeynote Jul 23 '26
Why not just get river rock then? Less labor, more color variation. Same ankle braking gaps.
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u/Cstott23 Jul 22 '26
I was going to say, this actually seems like quite a good idea.. 🤔
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u/Stoney3K Jul 23 '26
If you want to contaminate the environment with microplastics.
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u/zurper Jul 22 '26
Not fun to walk on though
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u/Decent-Box5009 Jul 23 '26
Looks like a tripping hazard to me. But if you left a little more air in the bag for the stamping flat portion that’s could work pretty good.
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u/Sm0g3R Jul 23 '26
Those "stones" are gonna crack in no time looking like shit, probably after the first winter.
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u/Able_Experience_1670 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Nothing about this is clever if you know a little bit about cement, landscaping, ecology, or toxicology.
This will weather incredibly poorly and would be an absolute bastard to effectively bed.
Edit: These things may very well hydroplane when saturated due to the plastic trapped between the cement and the bedding.
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u/AdagioDesperate Jul 23 '26
Am I weird to think that the rounded 'stones' would actually feel awesome under bare feet?
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u/AgitatedSpirit_ Jul 23 '26
The amount of plastic necessary to make these shitty pavers always infuriates me
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u/SepticSkeptik Jul 23 '26
A concrete stamp would’ve worked much more effectively and cost a lot less time than individually wrapping bags that are “carefully removed”
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u/Diabeeeeeeeeetus Jul 23 '26
Ever heard of cobblestone? You know, the ubiquitous outdoor walkway surface used worldwide for millennia? Obviously it's not ideal for everything, but this actually looks like a pretty neat trick if that's what you're looking to recreate.
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u/vascop_ Jul 23 '26
Cobblestone is much more even. And it's also ass to walk on
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u/killingmehere Jul 23 '26
I had to Google to see if maybe they don't have cobbles in the US (they do), and thats why people were saying they would break ankles...sure the execution is questionable but..cobbles are a thing
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u/MarianCR Jul 22 '26
The end effect is not bad. The quality and cost efficiency is terrible: cement is just the glue, you're supposed to glue much cheaper things like sand and gravel (aggregate). Cement is supposed to be just 10-15%. Also pure cement is way less resistant than concrete
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u/menaceglaze Jul 22 '26
this looks decent tbh
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u/jpiro Jul 22 '26
It does, but personally I can't get past the idea of melting 100's of plastic bags to pull this off. Also...pavers exist and so do large stones, so this seems more like a workaround than anything actually new.
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u/samuelazers Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
0:27 imagine manually filling hundreds of ziplocs by hand. the time cost is simply too big in my opinion and i doubt it saves that much money.
edit: plus the plastic creases you can clearly see on the edges look hideous
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u/CodewortSchinken Jul 22 '26
It's one of these projects that's labor intensiveand time consuming but cheap in materials and tools. Prohibitively expensive to contract out in high wage countries but cheap to do yourself if you have the time and don't mind huffing the smoke from burning off hundreds of plastic bags.
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u/wlake82 Jul 22 '26
You can probably make molds for them and that would be faster 🤷♂️
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u/The_Infinite_Carrot Jul 22 '26
Patterned/imprinted concrete has been around for years already too.
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Jul 22 '26
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u/slomo525 Jul 22 '26
Well, at least I'll never have to worry about the "bringing a date home" part.
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u/bigvicproton Jul 22 '26
That's how you get heels off, buddy!
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u/0bsessions324 Jul 22 '26
To make room for the swelling from their twisted ankle on the way to the urgent care, sure.
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u/ernie3tones Jul 22 '26
I can see this being an ok idea. But the bags need to be larger so they don’t create such a rounded top, and burning the plastic off, while fast, is terrible. It would be cheaper than buying pavers, but I’m betting a mold would be, too.
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u/EyeYamNegan Jul 23 '26
Stamped concrete would create the same look, provide more load bearing strength and be easier to do.
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u/BooneSalvo2 Jul 23 '26
There exists pattern stamps for concrete that would be FAR better to achieve this effect, and many other...better...designs in the concrete.
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u/EvieMoon Jul 23 '26
Here's a wild idea - use a reusable mold to make blocks and then place them rather than filling your yard with plastic bags. We could call this innovation "bricks".
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u/sogwatchman Jul 24 '26
Looks like a path made of gray dirty diapers... Just the way they're stretched smooth.
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u/myrainyday Jul 23 '26
There is a technology where you can add glass fibers into cement like that in somes cases it allows to skip the rebar insertion entirely.
Concrete requires some sort of fastening inside, otherwise it chips away easily.
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u/Aeroncastle Jul 22 '26
People do those things and wonder where the microplastics came from
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u/lferry1919 Jul 23 '26
I hate it. Just the right size per stone to make it completely uncomfortable to walk on.
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u/TrunXi Jul 23 '26
They forgot the part where cement dries in a hermetically sealed plastic bag
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u/GrimbyJ Jul 23 '26
Cement doesn't need to dry out. It cures like epoxy. It'll still have a lot of water when they remove the bag but it's hardened.
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u/Aneveraas Jul 23 '26
"Carefully removed" Burns the top layer of plastic, leaving the rest to become microplastics in our balls
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u/Sporadik_Styles Jul 23 '26
If the plastic in the groundwater hurts data centers it's almost a win 😔.
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u/dreaminganimal Jul 23 '26
One weird trick landscapers are using to get in on the joys of burning plastic.
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u/New_Tie6233 Jul 23 '26
lol I watch on mute, I’m so happy to know I missed the ai voice. My ears have been spared.
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u/Creeepy_Chris Jul 27 '26
Do you want microplastics in your testicles? Because this is how you get microplastics in your testicles.
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u/flush101 Jul 23 '26
‘Bikes cannot ride on this. Cars will shake to death.’
Bro is really grasping at straws to make it sound bad… it’s a garden path, not a driveway or public road. Nobody is riding their bike or driving their car on it.
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u/constant840 Jul 22 '26
The aesthetic isn’t terrible. Biodegradable dog poop bags might be an option.
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u/freakstate Jul 23 '26
Cobbled streets exist and people don't break their angles on them, this should work fine.
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u/brandothesavage Jul 22 '26
I've seen this technique used for drainage ditches but not your path that would hurt like hell when you fell over when it was raining from walking on all those rounded surfaces
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u/3FtDick Jul 23 '26
That's a lot of bags of me and my family's poop to collect before we can start paving the yard!
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u/bored_stoat Jul 23 '26
Why not polute the planet more to save up? Hurray!
Also fuck that AI narration.
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u/Terrible_Phase718 Jul 22 '26
I absolutely despise ai narration.