Man invents machine to convert plastic into oil
Uploaded on Apr 13, 2009 — now over 4 million views
Read the article: http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/plastic-to…
The Japanese company Blest has developed one of the smallest and safest plastic-to-oil conversion machines out on the market today. It’s founder and CEO, Akinori Ito is passionate about using this machine to change the way people around the world think about their plastic trash. From solving our landfill and garbage disposal issues to reducing our oil dependancy on the Middle East, his machine may one day be in every household across Japan.
While holding up a bag of trash, he states, “It’s a waste to throw away, isn’t it? This is a treasure.”
Plastic to oil fantastic
by Carol Smith on August 27, 2010
This is evidence that concern over “the plastic problem” is certainly not going away, despite encouraging bans on and decreases in the use of plastic shopping bags.
Here on Our World 2.0, on the video’s YouTube page and those of re-posters too, as well as on the hot Reddit Science link, the topic has generated much interest and debate amongst commenters.
Many think that this type of recycling is not a solution, but that instead the world should be seriously focused on the first “R” — which is reduce. We should shun single-use plastic (such as your average PET bottle or disposable container) altogether, they argue. The world’s oil resources are diminishing; does technology like this enable our denial of that fact, or is it a hopeful and constructive step in the right direction? [Read more]
Comments
While converting plastics back to oil might not be the solution to reducing global warming, it would certainly reduce or eliminate our plastic waste, so dangerous to our ecosystems.