

How to Make Plastic - DIY - J3L2404
http://howtomakestuff.com/2008/09/11/how-to-make-plastic/

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Zak
_No chemicals are involved in transforming the potato into a good plastic
replica._

Nonsense. A potato is made of chemicals, and the ingredients they list,
including vinegar and glycerin are most certainly chemicals. I know they're
trying to say that none of the ingredients are very dangerous or hard to come
by, but it's just silly to describe a chemical reaction and say the reactants
aren't chemicals.

~~~
Groxx
Phrases like that, and the ever-repeated-in-advertising line of "... and it's
all natural, so you know it's safe!" have always bugged me. More-so the
natural==safe connection, though. This, in a world that's _clearly_ out to
kill us and eat us.

~~~
sliverstorm
Your reply should always be: "You know what else is natural? Ergot. Arsenic.
Anthrax. Malaria. Batrachotoxins (poison dart frogs). Vitamin A (you can
O.D.)"

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liuhenry
Check out Thomas Thwaite's TED Talk on "How I Built a Toaster from Scratch"

He mines ore and creates his own steel, copper, and plastic. It just goes to
show how much specialization and trade is required for the simplest of modern
technology, and how interconnected our society is.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toast...](http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html)

