[PLUG-TALK] Amazon shipping envelope sleeping bags

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Sat Feb 16 11:26:58 UTC 2019


On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 12:45:35AM -0800, Tomas Kuchta wrote:
> The labels are printed by thermal process - candle light is excellent at
> turning it black/ unreadable for privacy.

Great idea.  It takes about 3 seconds to blacken the label
with a 1500 watt heat gun, a piddling amount of energy.  

Even better, the heat stiffens the label and softens the
adhesive, so it takes another 3 seconds to peel off; no
chemicals needed.  I can imagine two workers with some
simple fixturing handling 2000 bubble-bags per hour on a
"disassembly line"; on a sunny day you could replace the
electric heat source with a shuttered "solar furnace".

The line could be completely motorized and automated, but I
would rather employ entry-level workers than Asian machine
manufacturers.  Makework maybe, but should strive to employ
our neighbors, even if they can't write code.

It is better to reuse than recycle, so I hope we can focus
on that aspect.  Besides sleeping bags for the poor and
shelter for the homeless, perhaps we can build bubble-
package kayaks and race them.  Too much of this stuff ends
up in the Pacific Ocean Garbage Gyre anyway ...

Keith

P.S.  When I explain recycling to friends and relatives who
treat the recycle bin as just another trash-can, I share
this video showing what goes on in a recycling center:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYux4-KIY1o

It is sobering to realize just how much of this material
is processed by hand, with workers spotting, grabbing,
and sorting thousands of individual items per hour.  
People are the root of civilization, not machines.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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