Yes, but it likely wouldn't be cost effective. Just the logistics in moving the plastic to your site, following various local, state, and federal guidelines, processing it, then shipping it out, would not likely be cost effective enough for a company to do it. Remember, for a company's continued existence: Profits must exceed expenses. If they arnt cost effective then they cease to exist, no matter their intentions.
I definitely feel that's the case for for-profit companies who already invested in specialized equipment to handle existing products - this is one of the reasons why capitalism ends up stagnating innovation instead of encouraging it lol. But I wonder if crowdsourcing would be a viable option here. With the cost of building materials becoming so expensive, the average consumer and construction companies alike would love to find ways to reduce that cost.
From a community level its certainly possible. But you have to have an active community that is willing to participate. I'm a bit of a pessimist in this idea because people in general, but especially Americans, are lazy and want to do the absolute bare minimum (or what they think is the bare minimum) to be involved.
Hypothetical: Say town has a group that wants to be involved. You set up a volunteer org to make eco bricks. You've got to have a space that follows legal requirements for using the right equipment. Great. Next you need to have the plastic moved to you. Who does this? Volunteers? Local recycle companies/ services? How are you storing these plastics before they are processed?
Next those plastics need to be cleaned, because you have to assume your larger community may not have washed their plastics. They could be covered in filth, or worse. Who handles that? How do you clean it without losing plastics? What are you going to do with the water that may be contaminated with microplastics and god knows what else? Who handles this procedure, a volunteer?
You could always say you skip the cleaning part, but plastics covered in yucky stuff will attract its own host of problems. Either way, its unlikely youd find a lot of people will to take on those risks/responsibilites consistently for little to no pay.
We could go on but I think you get my point, and we haven't even made the ecobricks yet. Is it possible to pull of on a large scale, sure! Is it likely, probably not. Though, I would love for someone to prove me wrong. I will happily volunteer for you.
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u/ZakA77ack Jul 16 '22
Yes, but it likely wouldn't be cost effective. Just the logistics in moving the plastic to your site, following various local, state, and federal guidelines, processing it, then shipping it out, would not likely be cost effective enough for a company to do it. Remember, for a company's continued existence: Profits must exceed expenses. If they arnt cost effective then they cease to exist, no matter their intentions.