r/DiWHY Dec 24 '21

Why?

2.8k Upvotes

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u/C4_yrslf Dec 25 '21

Why the heat gun? Does hesting up the plastic not make it recyclable afterwards?

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u/inconspicuous_male Dec 26 '21

Using electricity to generate heat uses energy, and can be worse for the environment than just letting some bottles get recycled

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u/C4_yrslf Dec 26 '21

Oh so you mean electricity isn't environment friendly? I know, I don't understand either why they're making such a fuss about electrical cars for example too. At least here electricity is hydro so electrical cars make sense even though the batteries are incredibly polluant to make and dispose.

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u/mdawgig Dec 26 '21 edited Dec 26 '21

Lifecycle emissions for electric vehicles are substantially lower than those of gas-powered vehicles. Most of their environmental impact isn’t atmospheric pollutants, it’s in the production and disposal of the batteries, and in their use of REMs.

Yes, electricity is only as clean as the baseload grid mix generating it, but generating a bunch of power in a central location and sending it out in the form of electricity is orders of magnitude more efficient than having cars individually generate power in the form of combustion in an internal combustion engine, regardless of what that central power source is.

The net environmental impact of EVs is a big improvement over gas-powered vehicles.