But at some point oil will be $200 and then $300 etc. At some time in the future this will become economically viable.
Machine that converts plastic waste into oil
- Thread starter G-MAN2004
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But at some point oil will be $200 and then $300 etc. At some time in the future this will become economically viable.
It does look similar doesn't it!
If we had unlimited cheap electricity we probably wouldn't need to recover oil from plastics!
Yes we would, unless you can think of another way of making plastic?
Plastic is evil nasty stuff whatever you do with it (throw it away, burn it etc) so some way of turning it back into something that can be reused (such as turning non recycleable plastics into oil into more plastic) is a good thing.
This is why I hate so many of the companies that are going "green" at the moment. It's all about money, we know that, but they pretend that changing from a recyclable product (glass/cardboard), neither of which are particularly environmentally nasty (cardboard degrades and glass is essentially sand), to plastic is "green"...
Caporegime
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Not really, the problem is right now most plastic ends up burnt up or in landfills, when oil becomes painfully expensive and this becomes an almost economically viable way to "produce" oil, plastics won't be being made anymore as the oil will have made plastic way to expensive to produce and use.
At that point there will only be a very small stockpile of plastic to be converted back so the miniscule amount of oil it produces compared to the tonnes and tonnes of stuff we use a day will be completely and utterly insignificant. Digging up landfills will be a non starter in terms of an attempt to get more plastic to turn back to oil.
RIght now loads of countries are burning up tonnes of plastic every couple minutes to get rid of it.
This is the fundamental problem, right now it costs more than the oil you get is worth and thats before you actually build industrial scale plants to do this, which will cost billions to start up, for a long term loss to be made.
By the time oil costs enough, there simply won't be any plastic being made to then turn into oil, its a complete non starter.
In reality every country in the world should be forced to build these on their own dime, send all plastics there for recycling and eat the costs, but no one will.
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Well it depends what environmental impact you're considering when you say being 'green'. For most applications using paper packaging there's a list of nasty chemicals such as acids and bleaches that are worse than the plastic alternative. In terms of CO2, overall, the paper option often emits more due to the increased mass = more energy required for transportation. Paper uses a LOT more water to produce than plastic, not so much of a problem in this country but it is a problem for countries where water is scarce. And often it's made from virgin material which doesn't come from sustainable sources, so you end up with deforestation rather than a recycling loop.
It's sad that you have to pick the lesser of two eveils but plastic does almost always come out on top.
Personally, I'd like all packaging to be made of something you can chuck in the ground with no guilt. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as clear cut as that because at each step of the life cycle you've got someone who isn't thinking about hwat they're doing or the consequences
