Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. As global warming becomes more and more evident, and going green seemingly trendier and trendier, we seem to be bombarded with this slogan weekly, if not daily. One of the main issues our planet seems to be having is the oh-so-terrible material... Plastic.
But there is a new hope thanks to Japanese inventor, Adrian Covert, who has created a machine that will melt down plastics, like water bottles or shopping bags, to be used as crude oil.
And what capabilities does this crude oil have? Well, many actually. For example, it can be used as an energy source for heating homes, a pretty major innovation.
Sound too good to be sure? Not necessarily! In fact, in under sixty minutes, Covert was able to use his machine to melt two pounds of plastic, including polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene... for example. The two pounds were melted into a quart of oil, which is essential a kWh worth of energy.
And anyone can buy this wonderful converting machine! If they have an extra $10,000 lying around, that is.
Nonetheless, the expensive machine is still incredibly exciting. It may just be one small step in the right direction, but it is a journey that we definitely need to get started. Because all of the plastic we use keeps accumulating in Earth's landfills, the hopes for an incredibly practical way of using that is thrilling.
For more information, check out the original article, One Man's Trash is Another Man's Heat Source
I really like this idea. Even though I've tried to be greener by using my own bags while shopping, we still tend to have a ton of plastic shopping bags that we just end up throwing away, as well as other kinds of plastic product packaging. It'd be great if we could recycle these plastics by turning them into oil and energy, especially with all the talk now about gas prices and finding alternative sources of energy.
ReplyDeleteThe only downside, like you said, is the cost of the equipment. Maybe big companies could invest in them and start some kind of program where consumers bring their old plastic bags and bottles in exchange for some monetary value.