Plastic into Oil? What do you think?
This just in: Oregon plastics recycler, Agri-Plas, has begun converting plastic waste back into crude oil. According to Businesswire, “the company recently delivered its first full tanker (8,200 gallons) of oil to a refinery in Tacoma, Wash., which translates to a final delivery of 196 barrels of oil.”
The method was developed by Plas2Fuel, a Kelso, Washington alternative energy company.
Until now, Agri-Plas has been a conventional plastics recycler, focusing on agricultural waste such as greenhouse film, nursery pots and plastic binder twine, as well as limited amounts of household plastic waste, which it recycles into other plastic products.
Now, the company is collecting dirty plastic materials which are unsuitable for traditional recycling for the plastic to oil process. And the state of Oregon has been a major supporter of the project, giving financial assistance through the Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit.
Right now, my head is swimming with all kinds of pros and cons. Here are the ramifications that occur to me. Maybe you guys can think of more.
First, the pros:
1) Whether we like it or not, our landfills are already chock full of dirty plastic, possibly leaching chemicals. Perhaps this material doesn’t have to go to waste.
2) It does seem preferable to use our own domestic waste to create petroleum rather than importing it from the Middle East or extracting it through offshore drilling.
Next, the cons:
1) Burning petroleum for fuel produces the greenhouse gases related to global climate change. (I know at least one FPF reader will disagree with that statement.)
2) Finding uses for our plastic waste could support the creation of more plastic waste. Will consumers feel relieved of their burden of responsibility? Will they continue to support the manufacture of new plastic products?
As I’ve pointed out before, plastic is fraught with many other environmental problems besides the waste issue. From manufacture to transit to end use, plastic wreaks havoc in our oceans (as pre-production “nurdles”) and in our bodies, leaching toxic chemicals. Will the idea that plastic can be converted to energy cause people to forget these other issues?
One paragraph in the article caused me to gasp:
The synthetic crude oil that Agri-Plas is reclaiming from unwanted plastic can be refined for a variety of uses. The oil can be refined and used in literally thousands of high-end products ranging from makeup to food items, as well as gasoline, diesel, lubricants and other petroleum-based products.
I’m sorry? Synthetic petroleum in my makeup? Synthetic petroleum in my food? WTF people? How are these uses environmentally sustainable?
Okay, just because it can be used in those ways doesn’t mean it will be. And extracted petroleum is already being used to create food and cosmetic additives. Still, do we want the environmental community getting behind this dirty business?
Please let me know what you think. Do the benefits of converting plastic to oil outweigh possible concerns?
You know nothing of chemistry. Just because something came from “plastic” it doesn’t mean its inherently bad. Chances are you already consume a ton of products that came from inorganic, apparently scary sources, yet you are unaware, check for example the production method of vanilla flavoring, to give you an idea. Don’t spread your naturalistic fallacies.
Thank you for sharing your advice about vanilla flavoring. Too bad your chemistry knowledge has led you to knowing nothing about social interactions. If you are to communicate something and you want someone to listen make sure to start you argument with something positive. And if you don’t have anything positive to say then keep it to yourself. For what world would it be if we save the environment but we can’t treat each other with respect?
Plastic is just a crude step in human evolution. Now we should refine it until it becomes indistinguishable from Nature (comrpised largely of hydrocarbons). Then we can all move back to the Garden as it was in the beginning; now the dinosaurs are gone we can enjoy it properly, with unlimited supplies of seratoninergic plants and animals.
One by one small gains are being made in the reduction of contents filling our landfills. Recently I saw some pieces on shows like CNN and the journal with Joan Lunden on PBS that were talking about issues and solutions for industrial recycling. Along with things like zero waste policies urban mining and now waste companies finding ways to profit from being more efficient we could really see a drastic difference in the next few decades. I think there is a battle ahead but I for one see hope.
I see good opinions on both sides (against it and for it).
One thing must be said: we need oil anyway, no matter how much solar panels and wind mills we build. Namely: wind mill bearings (even bicycles), chains, and even on carts behind the mule. And please don’t suppose that you can use vegetable oil everywhere. Try putting that in your gear box or rear axle of your car.
People don’t usually think how the western movie style coaches were lubricated. Probably with animal grease and/or vegetable oil mix. Then we really need the wheel smith quite often.
Meaning: the eco hype don’t speak about lubrication. This article was about oil (from plastic), and oil lubricates things. I’m for it, since we need moving things after inventing a wheel. Sorry for my clumsy English.
This may make it feasible to mine our existing landfills and encourage the use of solar and wind energy for the needed power to convert plastic into oil.
JAN 2010
Plas2Fuel’s conversion process represents, I suspect, a true and dramatic “Paradign Shift” is plastics recycling worldwide. Early, possibly overly optimistic, projections suggest that as much as 20 to 40% of US solid wastes to landfills will be diverted and recycled with a “overall BTU recovery rate above 60%”. With a Portland, Oregon area 1,200 gallon per day revcovery plant in siting approval process in Februry 2010, the Plas2Fuel process is poised for dramatic success and recognition.
The possiblitlity that the Plas2Fuel process will be used to recover the 300,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean floating plastic debris is a particularly attractive engineering and environmental proposal. A $100 million floating conversion/recovery plant could utilize PV solar, wave energy technologies and a fraction of product oil to generate up to 25,000 gallons per day of high grade synthetic oil.
Don B. Hennig, PE
This comes in late, but today Oct 6th there was a new buzz about plastic-to-oil process, and a different company “Envion” doing it. Perhaps a little different process – Envion claims to be able to do it for $10/bbl. [compare to tar sands at $25/bbl, or conventional at between $5/bbl and $15/bbl.
But ya, I love the idea. It is still oil, but at least it cleans up the plastic and reduces imports and drilling and, if only…. it could reduce Tar Sands expansion [they intend to QUADRUPLE it over the next 10 years] .
This comment was posted by Anonymous on my old Blogger site today. I’m copying it here to add to the discussion:
“I have to agree with Alanna. There are way too many people who really don’t care, or don’t want to be inconvenienced with changing the way they do things, so the amount of plastics that can be reused will stay pretty consistent. Might as well put it to good use and reduce the amount of virgin material used.
I recently decided to become as plastic-free as possible and am glad to have found this site. My recycling company is picky about what they accept, so I searched and found a place I can take the sour cream and yogurt cups and switched to butter in a box, among other changes. Thanks for what you’re doing!! “