Turning Plastic Back to Oil
Plastic Hazard
It is estimated that almost 1 trillion plastic bags are produced each year. There are upwards of 38 million bottles made annually just for water alone.
If this plastic is burned it will release harmful gases into the atmosphere. If it is buried in landfills it will take nearly 1000 years to biodegrade. Dumping it in the sea is not an option, as plastic bags are already forming their own islands in the ocean and it is estimated that they are responsible for 100,000 deaths to marine life each year.
Solution
Last year Akinori Ito, an inventor for the Japanese company “Blest”, invented a machine that could turn plastic back to oil. It can transform 1 kilogram of plastic waste into 1 liter of oil. This oil can be used to create gasoline, diesel or kerosene. The machine can be built in different sizes, enabling it to be used either industrially or domestically.
The process does not use flames; instead it uses a temperature controlling electric heater that does not emit carbon dioxide.
Concern
This machine sounds good and could be a great help in our battle to “save the planet”. My concern is that I came across this information accidentally.
We should all have heard of this invention, politicians, scientists and environmentalists should all have been commending this in loud voices, ensuring that the population of the planet does not let an invention like this disappear into the voids of one of the big oil companies to be lost forever.
