This could be a solution for our plastic waste crisis.
Trash Oil
Honeywell International, a manufacturer of chemicals and parts for aircrafts, announced this week that it has developed a new method to convert low-grade plastic waste to oil of sufficient quality to be used in a refinery.
Sacyr SA, a Spanish infrastructure company, is now the company's partner. The partnership will allow them to scale up their process, called the Upcycle Process Technology. It can produce oil from 30,000 tons of mixed plastic waste per year. Production will begin in 2023.
Industry players are trying to find ways to make recycling profitable and viable enough to reduce the global plastic waste crisis. Although we are still not sure if this process will be able to make an impact on an industrial scale, nor the cost involved, it is a worthy effort and could provide a solution to a growing problem.
Plastipocalypse
Honeywell draws on its decades-old experience in plastic waste purification and claims that it can increase recycling rates by up to 90%, according to a press release.
Advertisement
Advertisement
This is a significant leap considering that only two percent of plastic waste can be recycled into reusable materials according to Bloomberg. About half of plastic waste is either incinerated, or dumped in landfills. A shocking 30% ends up in the ocean or in other waterways.
Plastics are not going away anytime soon. In the release, Vimal Kapur (CEO of Honeywell performance materials & technologies) stated that plastics play an important part in society. This includes making food last longer and making cars lighter which decreases their emissions. Only a small fraction of today's plastics can be recycled.
UpCycle will transform the plastics industry by increasing the number of recyclable plastics. It will also play an important role in improving sustainability of many products that we use every day.
The proof is always in the pudding, as they say. It remains to be determined if Honeywell is the answer to our huge plastic waste problem, but it is clear that the issue has the potential to be disrupted in some way.
Advertisement
Advertisement
READ MORE: Honeywell is turning low-grade plastic waste into high-quality oil [Bloomberg]
Scientists say the world is approaching a non-reversible tipping point in plastic pollution
Do you care about clean energy adoption? Learn how much money and planet you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. UnderstandSolar.com can show you how much money and planet you could save by switching over to solar power. Futurism.com might earn a small commission if you sign up via this link.
