That’s very true Swim, but it’s very specialist and not very energy efficient. It also creates lots of pollution and is expensive. It works out cheaper and more efficient to mine and use new products.
20 years ago (nearly) I asked the question, what happens post Oil, we are looking at the answer, an interim response with Lithium, its not a long term solution but, may buy some time.
Lithium falls well short of the versatility of oil Spitty. It’s a very poor substitute.
Same as wind turbines and solar panels will never be as efficient or as reliable as a coal, gas, or nuclear power station. And both lithium and wind turbines/solar panels are very much worse for the environment that coal and oil have ever been.
Can Lithium do that?
No…It just stores electricity short term… 
Basically it’s the metal connections between all the group of cells that make them so dangerous.
My son works in a Polymer Chemical factory. The two most critical monomers in plastic production are:
- Ethylene (ethene) – the building block for polyethylene, the most widely used plastic, found in grocery bags, milk jugs, and bottles scienceinsights.org.
- Propylene (propene) – used to make polypropylene, common in packaging, textiles, and automotive parts scienceinsights.org.
These monomers are derived from naphtha (a fraction of crude oil) or hydrocarbon gas liquids from natural gas processing worldplasticscouncil.org**+1**. They are separated and purified, then linked together in a process called polymerization (or polycondensation) to form long polymer chains that give plastics their shape, strength, and flexibility Britannica**+1**.
Why the polymer is the most important component:
- It defines the type of plastic (e.g., polyethylene vs. polystyrene).
- Its chemical structure determines the plastic’s properties — such as flexibility, durability, and transparency.
- Without the polymer, there would be no molded, shapeable plastic material.
In short, while additives like plasticizers, colorants, and stabilizers improve performance, the polymer (especially ethylene and propylene) is the essential, defining component that makes plastics possible Britannica**+1**.
I would suggest do not cook, eat or drink stuff that is in plastic thingies. An it will cut down on dump fill.
Glass is the way to go.
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The stats don’t matter. if it keeps the populations mobile in the short term!
There not a direction I can take in St. Louis Area now that is not a mess of accidents, construction, potholes, bridge repairs etc, especially adding curb’s everywhere. This is not Florida but the engineers are selling this crap on every intersection, mostly for Panhandlers to stand on. I also recently endured Traffic on the left side of the internet intersection a Truckstop North South intersection nightmare.
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America was never on the bucket list Zac, nor was the need for Grandchildren 
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But Papa, you play Poker so well with us!
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I am amazed at the amount of plastic I have seen in the UK.
It may not be typical but my brothers house has plastic window frames,skylight and doors, when we were at a servo on the motorway the benches were all plastic instead of wood.
My complaint about the motorways? no rest areas, all the places we have stopped at had a 2 hour limit before they charged for parking. (paying for parking is unAustralian) However how they knew how long you were there is beyond me, there was no barrier or ticket system.
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There are more cameras in England that in any other country Bruce. Lots of car parks now log you coming in and you pay, probably at a machine, before you leave. Failure to pay means an unexpected notice turning up at your door.
The Humber Bridge have abolished their toll booths and you must pay online.
Welcome to the land of surveillance and where everything has a price. They will soon charge you for the air that you breathe…Wait a minute… 
Don’t companies have to pay for the amount of CO2 they release into the atmosphere…? Carbon Tax anybody?
While having a shower this morning (when I do most of my best thinking) I wondered why, after seeing millions of westerns on TV as I was growing up…Why don’t you ever see a North American Indian sporting a beard?
Answers on a postcard because now I’m off to a faraway garden centre for lunch…
Catch yer all later…
My Ai buddy knows the answer.
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There are some in Scotland too…maybe it is a British thing ?
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An LEO goes buy on a bike every hour marking tires with chalk, that’s how they do parking meters in the USA. They check the tire, no chalk, mark it, 1 chalk they mark it again and when they come back past soon after you get a ticket. Expired ticket fines are a constant Big City threat on line.
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I vaguely remember that UK parking officers (I assume that is what LEO means) used to note the position of the valves on the near side tyres but from what OGF says they have long moved on from that.
As OGF intimates I know that number plate recognition is a thing because average speed and toll cameras use that technology to record cars as they pass.
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My uncle used to be a traffic warden and was very unpopular…Fortunately, he was a big lad…
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I got a ticket once for parking in a 1 way Alley the right Way. I saw a lady of the night get up in the Cab of the 18 wheeler - the trailer, across from me on the side street. This was years before ladies drove Interstate18 wheelers.
Most every home in the USA has Cameras in the front. Especially the porch / door areas.
Plus, Motion Detection Solar lights.
Interesting!
I suppose much depends on where you live regarding the effectiveness of the above?
Call me a cynic but I suspect people wearing balaclavas and wielding zombie knifes aren’t really deterred!
In other News…
Mrs Fox’s leg has been getting steadily worse despite the course of antibiotics she recently completed so after taking delivery of the new freezer I took her to A&E at the local hospital after the surgery up the road was no help at all. They actually suggested I take her there.
In A&E they were queueing out of the door, I thought it might be less busy at 5:00pm on a Monday afternoon…How wrong I was…
We spent over 11 hours being passed around from pillar to post but eventually came away at 4:45am with a prescription for furosimide to reduce the fluid and relieve the pressure. Something that could have easily been done by a decent doctor at the local surgery.
Because the hospital pharmacy was closed (the prescription had to be presented at the hospital pharmacy) we had to return yesterday morning.
Impossible to park within three miles of the hospital so I had to drop Mrs Fox off at the door and move along. What the hell has happened to the NHS?