Someone please fill me in why this is not-as-great-as-it-seems (or is it?)
At least five years ago an electronics/metals/scrap/recycling dealer I spoke with told me he was shipping his monitor scraps to the central valley (California), near Kettleman City I believe. He'd mentioned that there was a plant able to process the plastic from computer monitor cases into oil. I doubt that it is a cheap way to get oil, and it probably can't produce huge amounts of it, but it is a good alternative to putting scrap in a landfill. California collects a recycling fee with the purchase of monitors/TVs which goes to subsidize processing later. I'm not sure if the conversion is cost effective without the subsidy, but it seems the right thing to do regardless. I believe there's another processor near Victorville California. I heard they actually get quite a bit (over fifty cents a pound) for c.r.t. glass. It contains a large amount of lead.
Dealing with our wastes can be dangerous business.
http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/california-cluster-birth-defect...
Huell Howser on PBS has had a number of shows relating to different kinds of recycling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo2Pl7UxbNo
I have to laugh and cringe when Huell keeps scooping up and pouring c.r.t. glass sand with his hand... no doubt throwing a bunch of lead dust in the air. Opps!!
The cynic might point to destabilising the oil cartels and the general world economy underpinned by oil.
Funny you bring up patents. It's seems we already live in world fearful of the darn things.
Still, great video, and kudos to the folk who developed it. I really like the fact that the thing is so small and easily portable; killer feature.
Being able to turn oil to plastic and back, that is true recycling...instead of converting plastic bottles into Old Navy fleeces (decycling).
a) From what I know, re-melting down plastic only works so many times till you hit a quality barrier, this can make use of the plastic that that process can't use.
b) This can make use of trash that otherwise would not have been recycled. It seems pretty agnostic about what plastics it accepts which is good, but on the other hand it also makes me wonder about byproducts in the oil and if or how they are extracted / disposed of.
Of course, at this point the price of waste plastic is cheap but it seems like if this caught on, then the oil suppliers would raise their prices for the raw plastic manufacturers, who would then have to raise prices for bottles and such, which in turn would probably lead to bottled drinks costing more. Which might even incentivize people to buy less of things with plastic packaging!
This price increase doesn't really apply much for the ton of existing plastic waste that we already have though, which can be obtained cheap, converted back to oil, then sold. All in all, this sounds great!
I'd assume that the net energy gain is positive, but it would be interesting if they said how positive.
