Plastic waste into fuel? (Photo: Envion)

If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, you know that plastic recycling is one of the environmental initiatives that we support in this site. That’s why when I came across this news about a company that proposes to convert plastic waste into fuel, I simply couldn’t contain my excitement.

Could this be the answer to the world’s plastic pollution problem?

Envion, a company in Washington, D.C. recently unveiled a $5 million plant that they say would convert 6,000 tons of plastic into nearly a million barrels of liquefied substance, which could be blended with other components to produce gasoline or diesel.

Watch: The Conversion Process at a plant in Chungnam, Korea

The process involves heating the plastic with infrared energy in a carefully-controlled environment, agitating the mixture, controlling oxygen amount, etc. and would convert 82% of the waste material into fuel. Envion says they will take in all types of plastic, except PET (plastic recycling symbol 1), which has a higher recycling value, at present. Three tons of plastic waste could be converted into 1 barrel of fuel, costing $10 per barrel, in electricity used during conversion.

“This could be transformational in how we handle plastics,’’ Todd Makurath, Envion’s global brand manager, said. Indeed, it could potentially free us all of the plastic burden. Whatever this plastic-to-oil innovation portents, it’s reassuring to see people hard at work at finding solutions to environmental problems through cutting edge technology.

via: Green Inc.

Related posts:

1. Plastic Recycling Symbols Revisited This is actually a spin of an article on plastic...
2. Closed Ford Plant To Be Transformed Into A Renewable Energy Park Recession has undeniably dealt a devastating economic blow to...
3. Top Ten Recycling and Environmental Stories Of The Week (Nov.9-15) at Green Options Community urban garden in Philadelphia Here are the our...
4. BAN Exposes Fake Recycling Events in Pittsburgh The Basel Action Network (BAN) has uncovered another illegal...
5. 76% of US Consumers Want E-Waste Recycling A recent study released by Pike Research, a market...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.