Tuesday, September 22, 2009

There's still hdpe... or Time Traveling Trash

No, not a typo. HDPE is a common plastic.
A few weeks back, it occurred to me that what Mexico really needs are cars that run on white plastic bags, since the entire landscape of many of Mexico's roads are littered with them. If you live and/or drive in Mexico you know exactly what I mean. It's unsightly and sad. You will see drivers in front of you casually toss trash out the windows. Kids see the parents do it and litter and littering travels through time this way.

But there is hope. I recently caught wind of a company that makes conversion plants for plastics. One ton of waste plastic can be converted into "approximately four 42-gallon barrels of high quality, synthetic light to medium oil. That oil in turn could be used to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene."

More information is here

3 comments:

Chrissy y Keith said...

water bottles would be another good resourse to convert to fuel or lubricants.

MxSailor said...

Right On, C y K! In the future maybe they'll put one in every car! I can see desperate drivers in 2025 throwing their iPods in this thing while they scrounge the road for plastic wrappers and such.

1st Mate said...

Of course, when they start selling it, they'll put a price premium on it, just as they do organic veggies and nontoxic soap.