A tupp of wares🦨🦇Me searching:
Where the FUCK did I put my HDMI cables
Me cleaning:
Why the FUCK do I have so many HDMI cables
This is blowing up, so here's my obligatory shoutout for Socialized Junk Drawers. Convert useless corporate buildings into giant community-driven junk drawers. You'll never have to buy an HDMI cable ever again, because holy shit I don't need this many of these things and I don't remember when or why I got them
⬇️ Thread on Socialized Junk Drawers
This is probably something that would be well-suited to be operated with automation and robots, but on the other hand, you could also hire people who enjoy organizing or cleaning things. You wouldn't even need to go through an interview process, there could just be an inbox with unsorted junk and they could just start working. Because what's the worry, that they're gonna steal from it? Who cares, it's junk. But give them a paycheck and it becomes clean, well-organized junk.
I personally like taking things apart, so think of all the busted n broken things people hold onto in their junk drawers in the unlikely event that they'll ever get around to fixing them. Say you had a wildkatz controller or something. Shit stops working as expected, so it's sent to the inbox. Somewhere in the process it's flagged as broken or inoperable, and now it's in a different junk drawer for broken or inoperable devices. This is where disassemblers like me can earn a paycheck.
So the screws, plastic housing, buttons, joysticks, rubber grips, and electronic components are all separated and sent to the next stage in the process, the cleaners could remove any filth, and the organizers can organize all the pieces, putting them into whatever an "outbox" would be in this scenario. The outbox could be connected to a database, and that database could be accessed by general public.
If someone wants a thing, and it's not at their local junk drawer, they could search the database to see if it's in the system, where it is, and determine if they want to travel to that junk drawer, or input a request to transfer it to their local junk drawer, where they can be notified and it can temporarily be set aside for them to pick it up. People can be payed or otherwise rewarded to do this, particularly people who enjoy travelling.
If they visit a junk drawer, there could be an "outgoing" junk drawer that contains packages with the address on them, and if people are heading in that direction, they can pick them up and take them there. People could do this to earn both money and reputation as a reliable transporter of junk. There could be some sort of an ID system or something to keep track of all this. This can help with inventory management but also with the safety of the transporters.
Scene: local junk drawer. There are packages with addresses on them. Person scans their ID, scans some packages, chooses "delivery" from the options, chooses a day and time of delivery, and takes them. If the packages aren't delivered in time, there will be a notification sent to their phone as a check on their safety. They can reply to update delivery time if they're running late, but if they don't respond, there could be an alert put out for a possible accident or missing person report.
So not only would this idea benefit communities by providing free communal exchange of items, it would reduce the need for businesses to stock those items, it would reduce the demand for the unnecessary production of those items, it could provide people with a source of work, it would have a system of accountability that manages distribution of resources within the entire Junk Drawer system, and it would also provide a safety measure for people like transporters using the system.
Star Group (worm edition) 
@GreySleeves i love this
also want a community recycling factory where plastic is turned into 3D printing filament, and people could have a job turning plastic bottles and other plastic waste into ecobricks, i think that would be fun
also want a community recycling factory where plastic is turned into 3D printing filament, and people could have a job turning plastic bottles and other plastic waste into ecobricks, i think that would be fun
@alienskyler Exactly. I am of the opinion that not nearly enough is being done at recycling facilities and there's very little, if any, incentive provided to recycle, especially taking into consideration that you have to PAY to use recycling services. It's like states would rather disincentivize recycling rather than reward it, it's dumb, it should be different, and it's completely possible to change it to something better
@GreySleeves yeah, i don't think my town has recycling pickup, i only am able to recycle because my neighbor makes frequent trips to the recycling center, plus i share trash bins with my neighbors so recycle and compost to try and not make too much trash
when i lived in an apartment there was really no way to recycle though and that seems common and i hate it
plus the community recycling centers i am imagining would prioritize reuse first
when i lived in an apartment there was really no way to recycle though and that seems common and i hate it
plus the community recycling centers i am imagining would prioritize reuse first
@alienskyler our recycling bins have notices that they don't allow things like plastic bags and I'm like.... wtf that's like one of the most common things. Every store I've been to in this state uses plastic bags, why on earth would that be the case when the recycling centers don't allow them to be recycled
@GreySleeves check to see if your store recycles them, i'm pretty sure Walmart has a recycling center that takes plastic bags, i think another store in my area does the same thing, and i get some Amazon packages in bubble mailers that say they are recyclable at stores that recycle plastic bags, i really need to gather those up and take them there, my container is overflowing
i also have turned plastic bags into yarn, there are instructions online for using plastic bag yarn to crochet sleeping mats for houseless people, i came up with the idea to make an attached pillow and use the plastic bag ends as stuffing, but unfortunately when i try to do stuff like that i frequently get overwhelmed and throw everything away and that happened to the mat i was making
and i also have to use some plastic bags to clean the litter box, which does result in them getting thrown away unfortunately but i don't have a better solution
i have too many plastic bags , i really should try to recycle or upcycle them
i wonder if i could make plastic bag yarn and have the ends i can't use recycled at the store
i also have turned plastic bags into yarn, there are instructions online for using plastic bag yarn to crochet sleeping mats for houseless people, i came up with the idea to make an attached pillow and use the plastic bag ends as stuffing, but unfortunately when i try to do stuff like that i frequently get overwhelmed and throw everything away and that happened to the mat i was making
and i also have to use some plastic bags to clean the litter box, which does result in them getting thrown away unfortunately but i don't have a better solution
i have too many plastic bags , i really should try to recycle or upcycle them
i wonder if i could make plastic bag yarn and have the ends i can't use recycled at the store
@alienskyler A lot of stores do claim they recycle them, but I don't trust what any business driven with a for-profit goal claims.
Besides, I'm in the midst of a project I've been working on that, you could say, is themed around consumption, so waste or recycling products are a valuable resource atm (I could see myself making yarn for it tho 
)
I just believe there should be a taxpayer provided service that does what recycling centers SHOULD be doing...but also free and communal.
@GreySleeves yeah, plus recycling plastic isn't that great, it releases harmful chemicals in the atmosphere and the quality of the plastic goes down every time it is recycled
in some ways i can see the point of people who think we shouldn't be using plastic at all, but it does have uses, personally i feel like the biggest mistake was treating plastic like trash when it literally lasts practically forever
why the fuck do we make disposable things out of plastic rather than something that biodegrades? if plastic doesn't biodegrade we should at the very least treat it like treasure instead of trash and make things out of it that are built to last (in terms of functionality)
in some ways i can see the point of people who think we shouldn't be using plastic at all, but it does have uses, personally i feel like the biggest mistake was treating plastic like trash when it literally lasts practically forever
why the fuck do we make disposable things out of plastic rather than something that biodegrades? if plastic doesn't biodegrade we should at the very least treat it like treasure instead of trash and make things out of it that are built to last (in terms of functionality)
@alienskyler discoveries have been made that there are mushrooms that are able to eat plastic. So we're probably on our way to converting recycling centers into mycology centers sometime in the future, hopefully sooner rather than later
@GreySleeves yeah, i really hope so
i wish i could do this myself already but there doesn't seem to be enough information
like people say the mushrooms break down plastic but don't eat the mushrooms that ate plastic, which is fair, but i'm just like, okay, don't eat the mushrooms, can i compost the mushrooms and use the compost in my vegetable garden? at what point does it become safe? and if the plastic is being broken down into harmful chemicals then is using mushrooms even helping anything?
it has also been discovered that waxworms produce an enzyme that digests plastic, and even crushed dead waxworms will break down plastic
i don't think we could feasibly breed enough waxworms to dissolve landfills and there are issues with putting them outside (they are a harmful parasite to beehives) but i think in the future probably we could figure out the gene that codes for the enzyme and put it in yeast and then we might have something
plus i heard that what waxworms break plastic down into is polyethylene glycol (i think) in which case it would be toxic but also useful, so maybe something could be done there
i wish i could do this myself already but there doesn't seem to be enough information
like people say the mushrooms break down plastic but don't eat the mushrooms that ate plastic, which is fair, but i'm just like, okay, don't eat the mushrooms, can i compost the mushrooms and use the compost in my vegetable garden? at what point does it become safe? and if the plastic is being broken down into harmful chemicals then is using mushrooms even helping anything?
it has also been discovered that waxworms produce an enzyme that digests plastic, and even crushed dead waxworms will break down plastic
i don't think we could feasibly breed enough waxworms to dissolve landfills and there are issues with putting them outside (they are a harmful parasite to beehives) but i think in the future probably we could figure out the gene that codes for the enzyme and put it in yeast and then we might have something
plus i heard that what waxworms break plastic down into is polyethylene glycol (i think) in which case it would be toxic but also useful, so maybe something could be done there
@alienskyler i found myself asking similarily themed questions about lavender when I heard it could be used to remove heavy metals from the soil, but don't recall if there were any answers. Phytoremediation is still a relatively new concept to me, and not really something I've hyperfixated on yet 
@GreySleeves yeah, i came across the information in a book just now
with phytoremediation, plants that are used to remove heavy metals from the soil have to be landfilled
which i guess makes sense, you don't want the metals going back into the soil
also apparently mushrooms can be used to remove petroleum from the soil if there was an oil spill, and if there is any heavy metal in the soil they need to be landfilled but if you are sure there is not then they can be composted
so maybe it is okay to compost mushrooms that have been used to break down plastic, since the compost would add another step of remediation (bacteria do a lot as well)
with phytoremediation, plants that are used to remove heavy metals from the soil have to be landfilled
which i guess makes sense, you don't want the metals going back into the soil
also apparently mushrooms can be used to remove petroleum from the soil if there was an oil spill, and if there is any heavy metal in the soil they need to be landfilled but if you are sure there is not then they can be composted
so maybe it is okay to compost mushrooms that have been used to break down plastic, since the compost would add another step of remediation (bacteria do a lot as well)
@alienskyler Yeah, there's still a lot of unknowns and unsatisfactory knowns we have about phytoremidiation, but it's nice to know that there are people out there actively working towards and discovering new aspects to it. I do think the first plastic-eating organism I even heard about was a Bacteria, and even that sounded like a game-changer, so seeing discoveries that some mushrooms can also serve that purpose is very encouraging. Inspirational, even.
@GreySleeves yeah, i just really hope once the science is figured out it can be implemented on a small scale instead of capitalists seizing control of the technology
like it would be cool if everyone had a plastic compost pile as well as a normal compost pile, and there could be some community ones as well, but i'm so sick of something helpful being discovered and someone patenting it and selling it at an exorbitant price
like the fungus that was discovered to make complete protein when fed nitrogen, a company patented the technology for growing it and they sell vegan sausages and cream cheese made from the fungus, which is neat, but i want to be able to grow the fungus in my kitchen and make my own fake meat
like it would be cool if everyone had a plastic compost pile as well as a normal compost pile, and there could be some community ones as well, but i'm so sick of something helpful being discovered and someone patenting it and selling it at an exorbitant price
like the fungus that was discovered to make complete protein when fed nitrogen, a company patented the technology for growing it and they sell vegan sausages and cream cheese made from the fungus, which is neat, but i want to be able to grow the fungus in my kitchen and make my own fake meat