The video is called "Man invents machine to turn plastic to oil." In summary, the Japanese company Blest has developed machines that convert soft plastics into oil. The CEO, Akinori Ito, demonstrates the counter-top machine at 1:48 into the video. He then tells about taking the machine all around the world - educating children and communities about the potential of what we consider waste plastics.
The technology itself is not earth-shattering - large recycling plants have been processing plastics this way before, although not very efficiently. What interests me is the small-scale unit. Could low-income families around the world create new income streams by collecting and processing plastic waste? Would municipalities or businesses open up depots to buy back unprocessed oil from individuals? Could my cousin, living on a farm outside in Saskatchewan, process her own oil out of packaging and plastic products?
I looked around the internet a bit, and found this article about the same process in Whitehorse, Yukon: http://yukon-news.com/business/plastic-to-oil-machine-comes-to-whitehorse The community of Whitehorse installed a plastic to oil machine in September 2012 for a one-year trial. They realized that much of their waste was travelling overseas to be processed, using methods that may not be the cleanest. "The goal of this pilot project is to give P&M Recycling the ability to process plastics onsite, rather than sorting it and trucking it south, while producing enough energy to heat the 600-square-foot recycling centre." I am going to keep an eye out for updates on this project as we move into September.
Some thoughts that come out of this:How does the City of Vancouver process it's plastics? How far do they travel to be processed? Are we shipping out waste out-of-country?
Can this technology be used as the base of small businesses in the developing world? What additional technology is required to process the oil into diesel, gas fuel, etc? Could this even the playing field for countries that have less oil resources?
I hope the fact that we can cycle plastic to oil will not drown out the fact that plastic products are inherently wasteful and destructive to our planet. When you think about the amount of water, oil, and energy that goes into making a plastic water bottle, for example, it is absolutely obscene.
The original article on Blest Co's device can be found here: http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/plastic-to%20-oil-fantastic/
