I want to turn plastic into powder for various applications including to use to grow various things I know can eat plastic (if it is small enough) to then use/sell.
Things like mushrooms, worms, mealworms, etc., can live on plastic if it is small enough in size.
The problem is breaking down the plastic to powder.
Commercial blenders are normally not strong enough and so only work for very weak plastics like styrofoam.
You can use one of those elcheapo spinning coffee grinders that most people use for grinding spices.
I use that to grind down sugar into icing sugar and rock salt into a fine powder.
I can't find it via google search, can you give me a link? What is the lowest price for one of those grinders for tough materials?
I found an "industrial" one for little over 100 euros which is not too bad in my view
Oyster mushrooms do it because plastics are based upon oil and oyster mushrooms can metabolize/"eat" oils. But it's a very slow and inefficient process unless the plastic is a fine powder so the mushroom can grow between the plastic powder bits. Other mushroom species can also eat plastic but most likely slower and less efficiently than oyster mushrooms which are known to have the most diverse amount of enzymes for breaking down waste.
Yes, worms "eat" plastic, both in nature and when farmed commercially. But it's an inefficient process for hard plastics and requires that the plastic is small enough that it can enter their body via their mouth. When the plastic is inside the bacteria will then degrade it but not always fully, thus smaller plastic bits can be pooped out.
do they actually digest the plastic, or does it pass through their system and remain chemically plastic?
there is one that actually digests it, and the 'poop' can be used to make vanilla flavouring, because they are so chemically similar.
>they are so chemically similar
>the manmade horrors beyond our comprehension will continue until morale improves
the majority of vanilla flavouring/scent today is already made using petrochemicals. this one however would come out of the ass of a modified e. coli bacteria, using trash as fuel.
>Margarine is only, like, one molecule off of plastic bro…
>why is it so hard for plebs to understand they're chemically identical
>When the plastic is inside the bacteria will then degrade i
Wasn't that a specific bacteria that they had to introduce to the worms gut for it to be able to do this?
nope, some bacteria are more capable than others but simple enzymes used for digestion/breaking down food often also have activity against plastic, just very weak activity
and the microbiome of worms will change depending upon what it eats so it will naturally acquire bacteria capable of eating the plastic
What do you use the mushrooms for? I can't imagine eating mushrooms that "eat" plastic could be good for human consumption.
Upcycling
Turning indigestible stuff into animal feed (many studies on it).
Insoluble fiber like lignin in wood is useless for most animals, but it can be easily broken down by mushrooms and thus wood can become high protein and nutritious animal feed.
I have already tested this with rabbits in regards to turning sawdust into feed and it works.
You can't find a coffee grinder with a simple google search? LMAO!!! You are a lazy son of a b***h.
so you turn plastic into plastic with poop
What kind of mushrooms eat plastic?
Worms eat plastic?
Maybe OP Iis trying to make diy napalm or some shit.
>trying to make
Well then he's doing it wrong.
>liquid nitrogen or dry ice or very strong freezer + mill (kinda pricy tho)
>acids and shit + mill (needs thorough washing)
>leave it under the sun for a couple years + mill (literally free but slow)
So you're intentionally trying to make microplastics and ingest them?
dryer lint. better yet, filter out the 'lint' that drains with the wastewater from the washing machine. seems counterproductive to waste energy pulverizing bigger stuff that's better off incinerated anyway when there's a steady stream of already existing microplastics you could capture.
Good take.
OP needs to calculate the energy cost of grinding down all the plastic. A grinder, even the commercial style, will clog up really quick, especially if you feed it dirty scrap plastic or varying compositions.
I think the best approach, other than finding a better source of plastic, is to melt it to a fiber, think fiber glass production process. If it's fine enough, OP's bacteria might be able to break it down as is.
You will get parasites and blood toxicity.
I know it sounds found to throw your life away when you are young and do the stupidest shit you are capable of imagining, but please reconsider what you are doing, and your options in life right now
>You will get parasites and blood toxicity.
From doing what, exactly?
Ingesting plastic willingly
Why would you want to do this? to contaminate your entire house with microplastics or to create a huge mess and big vats of meal worms to... do what with? go fishing? Now plastic filled bugs are in the water. great.
Bet you didn't know that beavers and vanilla flavor have an interesting connection...
I'm skeptical of this but if it's a legitimate way of removing plastic without ingesting things like bisphenols then I want to know more.
There’s no bisphenols in most of the plastics you’re gonna recycle, like polyethylene or polypropylene (pictured by op)
that doesn't address my point
this is the stupidest form of pea brained ignorance
i have read in a long time.
>just eat the petro-spores bro there good for you
kys