Plastic has become essential material for modern life as our daily experience indicates us.
The global plastic production is estimated today in around 300 million metric tons a year, figure that is increasing at a rate of 4% annually.
It is vital to put it in a loop without any possibility to escape. PET1 is a very profitable material but the other PETs are not so easy to recicle. We must give value and reasons to be recycled to any plastic produced.
In 2010, the invention of the plastic-into-oil machine showed clearly that re-conversion is possible.
Why not carrying out the plastic-in-oil process along with the petroleum in the already existing refinery plants? The enormous quantities of plastic waste circulating would justify the inversion.
What I'm proposing is putting engineers to work, exploring the possibility to add the necessary technologies to the standard and widespread refineries, with the final purpose to include plastic waste as a raw material for the normal production of gasoline and petroleum derivates.
I want you to consider this video of United Nation University showing Akinori Ito describing his invention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CD_FZssFT4
Please take a look also to these two videos: as it is clearly stated in this video at at 0:49” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYRwWyG3Qqw
“Petrol is superheated” like plastic when it is reconverted into oil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6V_SXuLxg
Making gasoline from petroleum and from plastic doesn't look so different in their processes.
I'm sure engineers will be able to find a proper technological solution.
Even adopting my Barcode v/s Plastic Waste proposal as a law (BCvsPW can lead to a drastic single use plastic reduction), at a country level quantities would be significant. Further more, even a non-oil country could use plastic instead of buying petroleum, making it disappear with a valuable economic return.
So here are the two new topics:
- Gases: so far, the recycling process for plastic is done through melting the material and this process produces gases which are generally captured by filters. So far, there is no recycling process for plastic which does not include melting the material and, therefore, gases are in general captured by filters. The same happens processing petroleum.
- Filters: with free raw material, more economic resources can be dedicated to filters, keeping emissions under further control.
Since 2010, some countries –China on top- have developed huge plastic in oil plants exporting them wherever requested.
BUT, this creates an alternative and very expensive channel for plastic while petroleum refining process is pretty much the same and it already exists.
Put refineries in condition to process and recycle also plastic waste, could give to this process an affordable cost, while offering a way to get rid of plastic waste all together.
Furthermore, even if developed countries are going to put aside the fossil industry soon, it is more likely that third word will take more time in reaching this goal achievement.
Why should we waste so much plastic that can be used instead of oil?
While, hopefully, plastic made with oil would progressively disappear, along with the growth of alternative energies, this idea definitively puts plastic in the loop.
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