I view this as acerbic wit. Not thrown out there with malice. To my eyes, it has a rather ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ about it.
I don’t find PontiacRich’s call for the modeling industry to become more wasteful to be either serious or sarcastic/offensive, just internet banter.
To the query posed by PontiacRich as to different materials, I am no chemical engineer so there is no useful comment I can make to the furtherance of this discussion. On that note, I will bid you all farewell.
Regards, PWB.
They recycle almost everything here. Plastic water bottles marked #1 pay $.90 / lb at the local recycling place and all of our garbage goes through a mass of conveyor belts that seperates everything.
After having been literally shot at and missed, shot at and hit, shot down, and blown up, my personal creedo is “Admit Nothing, Deny Everything, Make Counter-accusations”, and my personal outlook is in two parts… One: “Don’t sweat the small stuff”, and B: “It’s all small stuff”…
Hans - Point taken [#toast]! I wish there was a “Thank You” emoticon with an american flag to thank people for their service. I guess getting shot at does put things in perspesctive.
My point in this whole discussion was to see if anyone else here sees the irony that my wife saw of me harping on getting better at recycling household items while I buy and build plastic models? And, hopefully, to see if there is any movement afoot to try and guide the industry (users and manufacturers) to get more eco-friendly! So is there?
There have to be some chemists in this learned group - hopefully with ties to the manufacturers - that may know of whether things are changing or if there is even a possibility of things changing.
I’d venture that if any group in the hobby is pressing for more “eco friendly (ef)” products it would be the Western European companies, due to the more stringent enviromental laws which they operate under. (anybody been to Germany and seen their garbage seperation/recycling requirements?) Not being a chemist myself I can say what the future holds for injection molded styrene plastic and any possible replacement. But I would venture that we are seeing more “ef” finishing products with the trend of most companies towards acrylic paints. Take a look at some of the acrylic vs enamel debates thatt pop up here fairly regularly.
Maybe our hobby will have to align with the computer age, we will be able to buy virtual kits. assembled with careful and delicate movements with the mouse… think of the possibilities.
The reason no one makes models out of eco-friendly materials is because it’s expensive. Invariably, making ANYTHING eco-friendly is going to be more expensive. Being green might give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but if you are in the business of making model kits, it ain’t gonna fill your wallet, or pay your employees. As soon as it becomes cheaper to make kits out of soy or other recycled plastics or fairy dust or whatever, and as soon as you can do that with as good or better quality, is when you’ll see manufacturers start doing it.
In the meantime, I’ll just stick to recycling my cans and plastic and paper and cardboard, since even THAT isn’t mainstream yet. At least I"m doing something. It’s kinda like having a quarter pounder for lunch, and a salad for dinner. It all balances out. That’s my philosophy, anyway.
I hate to come off a little strong but if you are that “Worried” then stop buying models that way you are doing your part. To me I have other things to worry about like keeping a job and paying the bills during these rough times. Sorry just my opinion.
Mans first forrays into the field of polymer chemistry,where compounds from biological sources, shellac and celulose re; cellophane from wood pulp and the former from the carapace of a bug with a 30 year life cycle called the lac,(don’t laugh it’s true!). So I suppose there are alternatives. As for the bigger question, if crude oil goes by the way of it’s benefactors then nearly all industry and branches of material science stop. And so goes our economy and way of life, our hobby nearly irrelavent now, would wither in light of such questions as,“Where did all the hot dogs go?”, “How come my car won’t start?” and “Does anyone have some pampers?”. And when that day comes we’ll wish that the Mayans had got the 12-21-2012 thing right. Still there is some merit to that suggestion about buying a balsa kit.