Best Recycling Ever: Turning Old Plastic Bags into Carbon Nanotubes

Okay, quick question how do we get colbalt, or how much waste is created in the process of mining colbat?

Exactly how long were the nanotubes? I can't imagine they would have a long length, but I personally am just waiting for the day I can ride the space elevator into Earth orbit!

I agree with Nikhil we should a drive to recycle enough plastic bags for NASA to build a space elevator

Why is it a downside to have a large amount of catalyst? Catalysts are reusable- they don't get spent in the chemical process. Couldn't you shave the nanotubes off of the cobalt and reuse it?
Also, a NASA scientist told a class of mine that the Van Allen radiation belts would destroy any nanotube-based space elevator. I'm keeping my hopes up, though...

Does this mean that I am not going to be able to buy any more cobolt blue artist paint? I will give up my cobolt blue artist paint if you take these eight hundred billion tons of plastic bags out of my trashcan and replace them with solar panels for my car and roof of my house. If that is a deal, you can pick the bags up tomorrow. I live half way between California and Hawaii.

Let's get some perspective here. The U.S. EPA estimates that there are between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags used annually worldwide. US plastic bag film recycling experts are happy to report that 800 million lbs. of plastic film is recovered for recycling annually in the US (includes all kinds of film, not just bags). These are huge numbers.

Just exactly how many nanotubes made from plastic bags will be needed? I think the number, expressed in weight, will be tiny compared to the problem or to other high volume solutions. A million lbs. seems like it would be a large number in that market. This application is curious and wonderful for what it is. But in the grand scheme of things it hardly seems worthy of a footnote.

I re-use plastic bags I get shopping for all manner of things until they're worn to the point I can't re-use them anymore.

An obvious use is for leftovers. They're even good for foods such as water melons, cantaloupes, or any other roundish fruit you might not eat all at once. I'l smooth a plastic bag into which I've put, say, half a small water melon and twist the neck tightly closed -- lengthens the shelf-life a bit, too. I use them for trash -- and re-use them for the same purpose, emptying them into a trash bin then bringing them back in with me. I use them to store stuff I know I will be leaving stored a long while to protect stuff from dust. I've even seen people make *raincoats* out of large plastic bags, and smaller ones used for rain hats are a common sight where I live (Bangkok) during the rainy season. And I've seen people with nice shoes they didn't want to get wet pull out a couple of [thick] plastic bags, slip them over their feet, then secure them with rubber bands. An attractive bag makes decent gift wrap, too -- and is reusable. Sometimes I've taken an overnight trip somewhere and instead of packing even a small suitcase, I put whatever I want to take with me in a plastic bag and carry that with me, even on airplanes.

I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of other uses. . . .