The entire basis for this is the assumption that goods are being transported using fossil fuels. If we transport the goods using electric trucks suddenly plastic starts to look much, much worse than paper or even glass.
Aluminum is much better all around so I’m not sure why it’s lumped into everything else. It’s basically infinitely recyclable and you don’t have to use natural gas or propane to heat it up to the melting point for forming/extrusion. There’s basically an infinite amount of ways to heat things up; even to really high temperatures.
There are complexities when dealing with aluminum. Main one being oxygen.
You don’t want aluminum oxide, you want pure aluminum. Just heating the stuff up on its own will not give you pure aluminum. You have to eliminate oxygen from the equation.
Edit: Any wonder why aluminum welders have fat bank accounts?
Does lithium mining inherently push GHG into the atmosphere? I’m honestly asking because I don’t know much about the process other than it requires significant amounts of processing to extract lithium from its surrounding deposits. But if the source of emissions for lithium mining are solely from powering the equipment, it is not really a climate change issue (though even localized environmental damage is bad and needs to be addressed, of course).
Traditional lithium rock ore mining is a dirty, polluting process that also uses huge amounts of fresh water. But that’s not all necessarily inherent. There are several projects around the Salton Sea in California that promise not only to extract lithium cleanly, but also to generate a lot of GHG-free electricity along the way, because the ore is hot salty corrosive water extracted from deep underground.
optimistic podcast episode 1podcast 2website article
Good thing we’re moving to sodium ion then I guess. Also good that lithium batteries can be recycled so less lithium has to be mined. Can’t say that about coal, oil, or natural gas.
The thing with lithium is, that it can be recycled. Can’t say that about coal (etc). Lithium mining is absolute trash, but I hope that we can improve on this.
The entire basis for this is the assumption that goods are being transported using fossil fuels. If we transport the goods using electric trucks suddenly plastic starts to look much, much worse than paper or even glass.
Aluminum is much better all around so I’m not sure why it’s lumped into everything else. It’s basically infinitely recyclable and you don’t have to use natural gas or propane to heat it up to the melting point for forming/extrusion. There’s basically an infinite amount of ways to heat things up; even to really high temperatures.
Alu is very expensive to produce due to how much processing it takes—which also includes requiring a ton of energy and water, IIRC.
There are complexities when dealing with aluminum. Main one being oxygen.
You don’t want aluminum oxide, you want pure aluminum. Just heating the stuff up on its own will not give you pure aluminum. You have to eliminate oxygen from the equation.
Edit: Any wonder why aluminum welders have fat bank accounts?
Until you start bringing up the lithium mining receipts.
Does lithium mining inherently push GHG into the atmosphere? I’m honestly asking because I don’t know much about the process other than it requires significant amounts of processing to extract lithium from its surrounding deposits. But if the source of emissions for lithium mining are solely from powering the equipment, it is not really a climate change issue (though even localized environmental damage is bad and needs to be addressed, of course).
Traditional lithium rock ore mining is a dirty, polluting process that also uses huge amounts of fresh water. But that’s not all necessarily inherent. There are several projects around the Salton Sea in California that promise not only to extract lithium cleanly, but also to generate a lot of GHG-free electricity along the way, because the ore is hot salty corrosive water extracted from deep underground. optimistic podcast episode 1 podcast 2 website article
Good thing we’re moving to sodium ion then I guess. Also good that lithium batteries can be recycled so less lithium has to be mined. Can’t say that about coal, oil, or natural gas.
And oil mining is more ethical?
Oil mining is a more urgent issue, yes, but polluting the land with exhausted lithium mines is not the way to divest.
The thing with lithium is, that it can be recycled. Can’t say that about coal (etc). Lithium mining is absolute trash, but I hope that we can improve on this.
I understand why it’s considered better, I’m merely elucidating the importance of recognizing that it’s a stop gap measure.