• xradeon@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Caboose@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        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.

      • Strykker@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.