Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled — compared to almost 90% of metals — because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. This is because their properties are very different; density, electric and magnetic and even color. However Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic in it’s original plastic, sorted even by color thus closing the loop.
The traditional way to make plastics is with oil or petrochemicals. You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways, to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day. There’s got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics. Sustainable from an environmental as well as an economic standpoint. Inspired by mother nature who wastes nothing a good place to start is with waste. It’s plentiful and cheap and because Mikes company is not breaking down the plastic into molecules and recombining them, just like mining to extract the materials.
The capital costs of the plant equipment are much lower then that of a plastic plant. A typical plastic plant can only produce one type of plastic during it’s life but Mike’s one can produce many at the same time. There are enormous energy savings of 80 to 90 percent of the energy compared to making something the traditional way. Customers get to enjoy huge CO2 savings. They get to close the loop with their products. And they get to make more sustainable products.
From TED
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