A Machine That Turns Plastic Back Into Oil

Akinori Ito the CEO of "Blest" a Japanese company made a machine to that converts plastic back to oil, aparentl it´s safe, eco-friendly and efficient.

One kilogram of plastic waste produces almost a liter of oil while using about 1 kilowatt of electricity.

When you consider how much platic waste there is about, this seems a very green & productive idea.

http://motherboard.tv/2010/8/22/a-machine-that-turns-plastic-back-into-oil--2

YouTube video

$$$

Now that would be interested to see.

I like this

have you guys heard of the biodegradable plastic that can be created from genetically modified bacteria?

nope

its pretty bad ass, all you need to do is feed them corn sugar, so it would require us to devote a bunch of farm land to growing plastic rather than food, so there are positives and negatives, I just thought it was amazing.

The machine in this thread is too. Just reminded me of this other stuff. Not to totally take us off topic

Wow that sounds pretty cool where did you read this?

Originally posted by inimalist
I like this

have you guys heard of the biodegradable plastic that can be created from genetically modified bacteria?

Pretty sure I've used biodegradable spoons, forks and knives; they're made from corn.

Similar?

the very same

Biodegradable plastics (such as corn plastics) have been around for a while and they still haven't caught on really well.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html

But I wonder how the corn plastics work in that machine. Could it solve lots of problems we are having? lulz

Er, wait. Why do we want to turn plastic into oil?

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Er, wait. Why do we want to turn plastic into oil?

Because of this:

http://www.culturechange.org/Petroleum&Plastics.html

Plus this:

'two birds with one stone" as the saying goes.

Originally posted by dadudemon
But I wonder how the corn plastics work in that machine. Could it solve lots of problems we are having? lulz

no... if it did anything, it would just convert the plastic back to corn sugar, which is much less useful.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Er, wait. Why do we want to turn plastic into oil?

- plastic recycling becomes a power generating activity

- people, for some strange reason, think plastic is really bad for the environment

Originally posted by inimalist
- people, for some strange reason, think plastic is really bad for the environment

I read somewhere that it degrades faster than once thought...

But, the problem is: it takes a while to degrade.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I read somewhere that it degrades faster than once thought...

But, the problem is: it takes a while to degrade.

well, my point is more that, if you look at what goes to your dump, it is the rotting and essentially mummified food and other organic matter that we put into them that makes it so toxic.

The serious and immediate impact comes from organic waste, and composting is probably more important than recycling. Most plastic is compacted to an incredibly dense little blob that, as you said, takes a very long time to seep into the environment.

Sure, it is bad when it does, and that plastic island in the Pacific is pretty terrible, but it shouldn't be the top of our "waste problems" list.

Originally posted by inimalist
- plastic recycling becomes a power generating activity

This requires 1kW to operate.

Originally posted by inimalist
- people, for some strange reason, think plastic is really bad for the environment

In the long term it is. But we can solve that problem by not dumping in places. Plastic seems really easy to resuse.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
This requires 1kW to operate.

well, you got me then, I have no idea what purpose this serves...

maybe delaying peak oil by suggesting we could just start destroying all our things, making the metaphore for how canabalistic our dependance on oil is much more literal.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
In the long term it is. But we can solve that problem by not dumping in places. Plastic seems really easy to resuse.

ya, you will not hear me say too many bad things about plastic.

Originally posted by inimalist
I like this

have you guys heard of the biodegradable plastic that can be created from genetically modified bacteria?

Yep Ive heard of that, sounds like a brilliant idea. Is it being mass produced or is it too expensive?

I saw an interesting documentary yesterday acutally where Algae producing oil, aparently it can produce up to 300 times more oil per acre than crops.

Is that actually new? I was under the impression we could do this for years, I am pretty sure I saw that being done on some documentary years back...