|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:13 PM |
This is a weird affect but it's easy enough to do yourself. I think industrializing this could have a really big affect, though.
I mean, we can't replace normal plastic with this plastic because that would require a lot of cows. But look at American schools and how much milk goes in the garbage, and American homes and such. What if we had a milk recycling place where everyone could dump milk they haven't finished or has gone bad?
If you want to know how it's done, I'll explain how and also why it works.
What is a plastic? A plastic is a wide range of materials that are made from polymers and are soft when made but can be molded into a shape and then harden in that shape. What is a polymer? It's a macromolecule, meaning the entire structure is essentially one big molecule, making it really tough.
Interestingly enough, there's a polymer in milk called casein. This polymer is usually dissolved into milk and so you never notice it. But you can easily get it out of milk.
You just need to accomplish two steps: 1. Add something acidic. This will help separate the casein from the rest of the milk. White vinegar works great. 2. Add energy. Just heat up the milk. Put it in the microwave or something.
Then, once it's hot with vinegar added, mix it up. And pour it out through a strainer and you will see a lot of clumpy gross looking stuff. But it's not rotten milk. This works fine even if it's new milk.
What you're seeing is the casein molecules clumping together. Casein is a polymer so if you collect all of these little clumps together they'll stick together. Then, you can let them dry a bit. Once they're dry, they'll be soft, and you could mold them into something.
Then, put them in the sun for further drying. You'll find that, after awhile, they'll harden just as hard as plastic.
I'm thinking of playing around with this plastic and seeing what kind of properties is has. Such as, if it's heavy or light, if it decomposes better than normal plastics, the energy required to form the polymer chains, etc.
Imagine if we collected milk people were going to throw out from people's homes and schools all over the world. We'd literally be able to make tons and tons of plastics and the government could take control of this and it would provide new jobs for people who don't have jobs to help make this. Plus, the government could then sell it to make profit for companies to use instead of regular plastic.
What do you guys think? |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:17 PM |
| Does spoiled milk also work with this? That'd probably be the biggest contributor if it did. My family throws out spoiled milk a lot. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
Scyblocks
|
  |
| Joined: 24 Mar 2012 |
| Total Posts: 26732 |
|
|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:18 PM |
| In the 1800s until the 1950s or so they used spoiled milk and rust to make paint for railroads. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:19 PM |
>"Does spoiled milk also work with this? That'd probably be the biggest contributor if it did. My family throws out spoiled milk a lot."
I'm pretty sure it does. I've never tried it myself because I never let my milk go bad. :P
But I think it works with spoiled milk fine.
|
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:30 PM |
My milk doesn't go spoiled, I drink so much of it. I drink lactose-free milk while the rest of my family drinks usual milk. It's funny how I, one person, can finish off my own milk before it becomes spoiled, but three people can't finish off their mutually owned milk!
That being said, would lactose-free milk be able to be made into plastic? I'm guessing not. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 24 Sep 2014 11:47 PM |
| maybe you can turn your hair into plastic after you cut it off |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:13 AM |
>"My milk doesn't go spoiled, I drink so much of it. I drink lactose-free milk while the rest of my family drinks usual milk. It's funny how I, one person, can finish off my own milk before it becomes spoiled, but three people can't finish off their mutually owned milk!"
I didn't even know lactose-free milk existed. oO
>"That being said, would lactose-free milk be able to be made into plastic? I'm guessing not."
Is your milk white? When I separated the casein from the milk, the milk turned gray and white clumps formed. So I think the white color comes from the casein. So as long as your milk is white, it should still have casein.
Lactose is just a sugar, while casein is a polymer. So I think it would work in lactose free milk as well. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:15 AM |
You didn't? The brand of lactose-free milk I get is delicious! I think I like it even more than the usual milk that I used to get before I developed lactose intolerance.
Yes, the lactose-free milk is white. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:15 AM |
| And uh, unrelated but who is your main account? |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:22 AM |
>"And uh, unrelated but who is your main account?"
I don't have a main. I haven't had one since my main from 07 got deleted. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:28 AM |
| You have any alts you've ever posted here with? |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 12:54 AM |
| Yes... but's that's a secret. :x |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 06:18 AM |
Does this only apply for Cow's milk? Or would Soy milk or Almond milk also work?
If it does work, Soy and Almond are much more easier to maintain than cows. All we would need to do is harvest Almond and Soy and we could create an industry out of this. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 07:14 AM |
| Fedora, finally something that isn't flame bait. But, this got me interested. I might try it. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
2013Yay
|
  |
| Joined: 31 Dec 2012 |
| Total Posts: 5299 |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 08:22 AM |
I'm against this idea, using food for objects is just waste. It's like using Ethanol as fuel, which failed in my country. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
2013Yay
|
  |
| Joined: 31 Dec 2012 |
| Total Posts: 5299 |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 08:23 AM |
| And if it's cow milk only than it's not only waste, it's against the cows too. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 08:38 AM |
"And if it's cow milk only than it's not only waste, it's against the cows too."
COWS HAVE A RIGHT TO THEIR BODIES!!!! IF THEY WANT TO MAKE PLASTIC WITH MILK THEN LET THEM YOU DIRTY BIGOTED SCUM!!! |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 08:39 AM |
| Aside from that joke, if you do some experiments on it, I'd like to know your findings. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
2013Yay
|
  |
| Joined: 31 Dec 2012 |
| Total Posts: 5299 |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 08:46 AM |
| Noswad, humans are holding cows in fenced areas and forcing them with machines to give their milk. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 09:51 AM |
>"I'm against this idea, using food for objects is just waste. It's like using Ethanol as fuel, which failed in my country."
Did you not read what I said? I said WASTE milk.
>"Aside from that joke, if you do some experiments on it, I'd like to know your findings."
Sure. I'm still waiting for my plastic cube to fully solidify fully. I want it to be completely solid so I can accurately measure its volume simply through fluid displacement (dropping it in a beaker of water and seeing the change in volume) and I don't want to get it wet if it's not solidified yet.
I also happen to have an electric balance which would be useful to get its density (although it doesn't measure too accurately, only to like 1 decimal place).
I may consider trying to melt it as well to see its melting point, or see if it just breaks down when heat is added. I know petrol plastic can break down if not melted properly. So I'll have to try this out as well.
Surprisingly, there's very little info on this. I've been searching everywhere and apparently scientists don't even know the full chemical structure of the casein polymers. I did find some papers on the Journal of Dairy Science that talks about their structure tho.
|
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
Dulexo
|
  |
| Joined: 07 Mar 2015 |
| Total Posts: 32755 |
|
| |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 10:07 AM |
>"procedure to make it plz"
1. Get milk in a container. 2. Add heat energy to the milk (can be done via microwave, stove, etc) until the milk is hot but not boiling. 3. Add something acidic to the milk (such as white vinegar). I don't know if there's an optical milk-acid ratio. 4. Mix the solution up. The casein polymer can't mix with the acid so it'll start clumping up. 5. Pour the solution through a strainer to collect the polymer. 6. Use your hands to gather the polymer in a single big clump and put it in something to dry for awhile. 7. Once it's a still a little damp and still a little malleable, put it in a mold. 8. Let the mold dry for even longer and it'll eventually turn to hard plastic. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
2013Yay
|
  |
| Joined: 31 Dec 2012 |
| Total Posts: 5299 |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 10:48 AM |
Do you seriously think that they pick up all waste milk and wait for more waste milk to produce plastic? They'll use real milk, because there isn't enought "waste milk". I'm still against this idea and i'll be especially against the idea if the people are getting money for recycling this. If they can't drink their milk they're just too wasteful and the feeling that it can be recycle will give them less motivation to drink the milk they bought. And this idea sounds like too much work and not very profitable, i doubt that an household gives more than 1 litre of milk they don't want to per week. We could do the same to other oils households doesn't need, the government can collect the oils households doesn't need anymore and sell it to gas stations. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|
2013Yay
|
  |
| Joined: 31 Dec 2012 |
| Total Posts: 5299 |
|
|
| 25 Sep 2014 10:49 AM |
| But of that what i heard it could work perfectly in America, in my country i see nobody taking milk and the cafeteria of my school sells no milk. |
|
|
| Report Abuse |
|
|