The Horse 2019/20

Plastic use has increased by twenty percent since the 1950s and so has the amount of its waste generated. Estimates show that less than 5% of the plastic manufactured each year is recycled, although, production of plastic is still increasing. Instead of burning the material and therefore creating additional air pollution there was a new way found to turn plastic waste into green energy.

Did you know that plastics are among the most valuable waste materials? It is mainly made of carbon and hydrogen and has therefore similar energy content to conventional fuels such as diesel. It’s possible to convert all plastics directly into useful forms of energy and chemicals for industry, using different processes.

Just a little proportion of all the waste that humanity produces can be recycled. Researches from Swansea University has found out how plastics, commonly found in food packaging, can be recycled and used to process into not only renewable energy but also in products like wires for electricity. This University also discovered that black plastic (e.g. the packaging of convenience food like take-away) is not as easy to recycle as normal plastic. During the studies they figured out that certain materials created during the process can be reused as "fuel" for specific machines.

There are different processes how plastic can be recycled into renewable energy but in general it is about the same; plastic is being converted into hydrogen, methane and ethylene once it has been heated up (depending on the process 500°C to 3000°C are needed). Hydrogen and methane are used as clean fuels whereas ethylene is the basic building block of most plastics used around the world. The process can also be used to convert plastics into other materials (e.g. hydrogen and methane for energy, or ethylene and hydrocarbons for polymers).

Those brilliant concept could have a huge impact on healthy environment – at least, it would reduce the amount of plastic waste dramatically in the future.