Making Oil Out Of Plastic

Hi there

Does anyone out there know how far we have come in adopting processes of making energy out of our mountains of plastic waste?

Here's a video clip (from 2007) demonstrating how a company called Blest transforms waste plastic into fuel (sadly, something goes wrong with the sound about two thirds into the clip):


And here's another clip (from 2008) demonstrating pellets made from recycled plastic, cooking oil, wood chips and other materials. The product is designed to insulate the industry from volatile fossil fuel prices. The company (repla) claims that their PWF pellets can supply almost the same energy yield at half the going rate:


See also http://article.wn.com/view/WNAT2083CAEE60FA53F650758E687938BB1D/

Throwaway decline – last year ten percent fewer plastic bags were used in the UK

Your blogger hopes that the Guardian will have no objections to her quoting their snippet of fairly good news. However, let's also focus on the fact that, according to the item, we still use (= waste) 6.1 billion – six-point-one billion – plastic carrier bags each year. 

There IS a better way to get our shopping home: re-using bags, using wicker baskets, jute bags, or cotton bags sewn from leftover material (see Morsbags on how to do that). 

Use your imagination, don't use a plastic bag!

Here's the Guardian snippet:

"Throwaway decline
"Future archaeologists will no doubt shake their heads at the vast numbers of plastic carrier bags we use and then chuck away to rot, very very slowly, on landfill tips. But we are getting better: over the past four years we have cut our use of the wretched things by 43%.
"Last year alone we used 10% fewer bags. The bad news is that we are still filling up 6.1bn a year. The campaign group Waste Watch says if the switch to reusable bags slows down, it will call for a bag tax.
Carrier bags are a favourite target for anti-waste activists, but they have even bigger, more polluting, targets in their sights. The latest include throwaway razors and single-use picnic plates and cutlery."


Oh yes: anything made of plastic needs to disappear from the shelves in our shops and supermarkets that is designed to be used just the once. Your blogger is radical in this regard, and reuses and recycles fruit and vegetable punnets to grow seeds in or to carry harvests of brambles about to share with friends. She even carefully washes out plastic goblets to reuse on another occasion.

PS:
Waste Watch are "a practical charity inspiring and helping individuals, communities and organisations to waste less.
Working together, [WW] aim to change the way we live and the way we produce, buy, use and dispose of things."