Consumerisim in modelling

[madhatter]

hey guys

I watched a YT video yesterday and the host was doing his usual car modelling and he got to the part where he was mixing his 2k clear with a pipette and then throwing it out after one use. It kinda irked me with his reasoning that if you were to use one pipette to measure out part A that you should throw it out after a single use as any subsequent use would contaminate the product - which I find to be BS as I've used the same one pipette to measure out Part A multiple times and never had an issue with contamination as your only using it on one single part and not mixing part A and B with it. This promotion of single use products, to me, is so wasteful.

Now, I'm no tree hugging hippie, but it occurred to me that this You Tuber (and many others) has no environmental consideration what so ever and it got me thinking about the hobby as a whole and just how wasteful it has become. All those pipettes etc all go into landfill as do a lot of other crap that we all use today. Does anyone else think that as a hobby, tools such as volume measurements needn't be so wasteful? Or am I just over thinking this stuff?

[Tojo72]

Can say I never gave it much thought,I mean I hate waste,like when it comes to wasting money I tend to reuse stuff.

[lyle]

I tend to re use IF I can clean the enough. A few years ago I bought a box of 5000, so……

[cbaltrin]

Well if you worried about cross contaminating a two part paint, I can understand.  Personally I use a lot of pipets. I used to always need a 100% new one for each color.  Now I just wash them about as best I can and re-use them for the next color, so long as it was not used for a metallic color.  For me it's just a money saving thing.   I am not tree-hugger either, but logically speaking, I have no illusions that me saving a pipette or two here and there is going to make any impact in a planet where millions a plastic straws and Styrofoam containers are discarded daily...

[madhatter]

I did some basic maths to try illustrate my point. If 1 person uses 2 pipettes (single use) each day of the week for a year that's 728 each year. It doesn't sound like much, but when you think about how many people build kits, that number can grow very rapidly. If say 25,000 people do this, that's 18.2 million pipettes being used just once each year. Those pipettes do not break down and after their sole use, where do they go?
I don't want to sound like a preacher, but I think it's food for thought (?).

[dukemaddog]

For me; I have never thrown out a pipette. I still have all mine.

[stuart]

I use about one pipette a year so I'm good. It's something I do thing about though - I tend to only use wooden q-tips and recycled cocktail sticks these days.

[Whiterook]

Interesting thread, and I don’t think anyone is ever overthinking what goes in our land, water, and air. 

Now that said, I personally never used a pipette in my life   I either mix directly into a palette, the kinds with wells, or the kind with sealable cups. I also Always use acrylics, and avoid toxics like the plague; my wife is chemical intolerant, so lacquers, thinners, etc. are all non-toxic. If I mix in an airbrush, I drop the paint in and stir it in the reservoir cup, and dump whatever I have left over into sealable containers or small bottles like used with Vallejo paints.

Anything left over for dumping, go into a large sealable container bottle and goes to the town toxic recycling depot… which even though almost all of it is non-toxic, they don’t mind getting rid of it for me.

All that said, keep in mind that I am both a Fine Artist, and everything I use is non-toxic. And I formerly worked for the largest Federal conservation Agency (The U.S. Department of the Interior’s, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, so I know first hand what a contaminated environment means to fish and wildlife, as well as idiot humans they constantly shake their beaks at 

Aaaaaand, I hate waste 

[mz3]

I switched over to glass pipettes. I know the chemicals we use can etch them, but they last much longer then the plastic ones. They clean up quicker and better.

[aaronw]

I really dislike single use disposable things (toilet paper being an exception) so preaching to the choir here.

[eaglecash867]

As it turns out, those plastic pipettes are actually quite resistant to any of the solvents I use (including MEK). I think most of them are made with Polyethylene plastic, which stands up to just about anything. What I do with mine to avoid cross-contamination of colors or 2K paint/hardener is to mark the bulb on the pipette with an Ultra Fine black Sharpie as to what it was used for. Then I put a small chunk of Scotch tape over the marking to keep it from getting rubbed off. After measuring out some paint with it, I just dip the tip in my jar of dirty MEK and squeeze the bulb a few times to flush it clean. Then I drop it into one of the giant cups I kept from Dickies Barbecue for storage and re-use it over and over for whatever paint it was originally used for. I easily get through an entire build without ever having to throw a pipette in the trash. The only time I discard them is at the end of a build (they're usually pretty badly stained by then), or when they occasionally get a hole or crack in the bulb which makes them no longer able to function properly. That drives me nuts too, to see someone throwing perfectly good, reusable tools away like that.

Incidentally, for measuring out the various thinners I use, I am using a small, 4cc glass syringe that has been going strong for years.

[super_average_gunpla]

Oct 19, 2024 13:00:07 GMT -5 mz3 said:

I switched over to glass pipettes. I know the chemicals we use can etch them, but they last much longer then the plastic ones. They clean up quicker and better.

This ^

[handiabled]

I've been using the same pipettes for years. I guess the though of just chucking them away never crossed my mind. In any case we recycle everything possible.

[Tobi]

I tend to not think too much about stuff like that. My modeling time is scarce.
By personal choice, I try to avoid waste using cleanable, reusable tools like metal paint stirrers where possible, stuff is only thrown out after it's really FUBAR, reusing pipettes, gloves, Q-tips, etc. until they literally fall apart.
I'm also biased against YT modelers, not considering them as examples, thinking many of them take themselves and their achievements way too serious.
Conclusion: when more people will ever reach the Zen like modeling-peace like me, the BS-ing on the wild-wild-web will cease. My two Cents.

[mz3]

Oct 20, 2024 5:40:19 GMT -5 Tobi said:

I'm also biased against YT modelers, not considering them as examples, thinking many of them take themselves and their achievements way too serious.

Don't get me started on that one.