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16 points

Fiber optic cables are very much not recyclable, at least with the current recycling technologies.

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6 points

i mean its glass, could just melt it down

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17 points

Sure, but the glass core is only 8–9 µm wide, it’s a minuscule amount of glass compared to copper cables so it’s not really worth it to melt it down.

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10 points
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Most optical fiber is 125um of glass with 250um coating. The coating and the jacketing that make up the cable (mostly non-recyclable plastic) are the real problem.

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3 points

What makes fiber optic useful is the fact that it is a very specific kind of glass.

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3 points

But it’s still dirt fucking cheap to produce.

The expensive parts of fibre are the transmitters/receivers at each end and the labour to splice/terminate it properly.

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2 points

It’s hyper complex glass

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5 points

Some are complex, most aren’t I’d say.

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