Researchers have figured out how to turn plastic into diamonds. Plastic is is made from petroleum. Petroleum is hydrocarbons. Diamonds are made from carbon under intense heat and pressure. They use PET plastic, the kind used for packing food and drinks. A laser is used to heat it up to over 10,000 degrees and they add pressure that’s millions of times the Earth’s atmosphere. It takes about 3 billionths of a second and boom, diamonds. The diamonds aren’t very big, but they can still be used in industrial settings. And, part of the payoff is that this could help recycle something that we thought couldn’t be recycled.
Jewelers are going to have to change their marketing unless they want the message to be, “Show her your love is eternal. Give her a plastic bag that was picked up off a giant island of floating garbage in the ocean ……… That was turned into a dazzling diamond.”