Comment by bee_rider
4 hours ago
I guess we’ll have to go back to our old friends glass and copper. Petrochemicals were a fad anyway; glass and copper have been with us the whole time.
4 hours ago
I guess we’ll have to go back to our old friends glass and copper. Petrochemicals were a fad anyway; glass and copper have been with us the whole time.
Though sand is actually becoming a problem commodity to source now, too:
https://www.clarknexsen.com/the-global-sand-crisis-examining...
https://scitechdaily.com/the-sand-crisis-no-one-is-talking-a...
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is...
That's mostly a type of sand needed for concrete, sand which is relatively "young" and has not yet had the sharp edges ground off by wind and water. You need sharp sand in construction, because "round" sand leads to weaker concrete.
Sand for glassmaking is more than abundant enough for all but the most distant futures, and even then glass is extremely recyclable.
There was an article on here (sometime in the last year?) claiming that the concrete strength issue is a myth. Apparently it's based on a very narrow claim in a single academic paper that's been wildly extrapolated.
Well yeah, if we insist on continuing to burn our limited supply of hydrocarbons, soon(ish) we won't have enough for making plastics either. Or plastics will become prohibitively expensive...
This is not true in a practical sense. There is a lot of petrochemicals still out there and our ability to recover marginal reserves keeps improving. I was really into the idea of peak oil when I was younger but it really hasn't panned out. Rather, if we continue to using oil, we'll cook ourselves and drown ourselves in plastic.
The eventual end goal should probably be production of hydrocarbons using solar power and CO2/water. In other words, synthetic photosynthesis.
Yep, there isn't exactly a shortage of hydrogen, carbon or energy in the world. Currently we get all three from the same place, but there are other approaches
Copper is expensive. If I were looking for a plastic alternative, I would follow the beaten path and start with aluminum.