want to drive a car? no problem but the gas will kill you
(media.greatawakening.win)
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Pyrolysis (burning plastic to produce fuel) can be done, but it generally is going to produce a low quality fuel that needs a lot more refinement to make it comparable to conventional fuel. It's also going to produce off-gases, heavy metals and dioxins, so yeah, I wouldn't do it in my own backyard. It also uses more energy than it could ever produce, which is why it hasn't really caught on as an economical or environmentally friendly way to recycle (not that mechanical recycling is either). So if you wanted to just get rid of excess plastic and you're only doing it on a very small scale, you could do it yourself and be fine, if you're in a very ventilated area, and the things you're putting it in are in a very ventilated area, but I wouldn't expect a very long life from the engines you're putting it into. Also, you have to consider the source of plastic...you do not want to be burning PVC.
I think this fellow in the video is a living Gilligan's Island character. It's a very nice set up he has, but I'm always leery of any plastics. That brings to mind what Eddie Van Halen believed caused his tongue cancer that led to his death. He said he always put the guitar picks in his mouth.
EVH said he thought it was the metal picks.
If it was, I wonder what type of alloy it was? That's another material category to be careful of. Was it the metal coating? Hard to say. I recall my dad telling me not to hold nails in my mouth because of the toxic coatings added. Galvinated metal is really bad. Zinc coatings also bad. Whatever, it was, it was probably not a good idea. So sad. He was a rare phenomena talent.
IIRC, I think he had said something about them being brass and copper and his tongue cancer showed up right where he held them in his teeth.
Guitar picks are made from all different types of plastics, including older plastics like celluloid and bakelite which may have a greater toxicity profile than modern plastics. Bakelite is particularly bad, being made from phenol and formaldehyde. So, he may be right, depending on what his picks were actually made from. You aren't likely to have any problems from PET or HDPE nowadays though...plastics have come a long way.
That's what they are saying right now. But, later.............
Somehow I've seen this play out several times over. I remember the mosquito foggers at campgrounds, in which DDT was used. The kids would follow behind the truck running through the smoke. I recall my parents being wise enough to not allow us to go near the trucks when they sprayed. We all know the story of DDT. I come to believe that any petroleum derivative is toxic. Even the crude oil coming out of the ground in my mond is like the residue from the bowel movement of a living earth.