Episode 30: Recycling Plastic for Fuel

Earth Day is April 22. This month, we’re learning about an Earth-friendly recycling technique turning piles of plastic into useful chemicals and fuels. Billions of tons of plastic are discarded in landfills. Much of it ends up in oceans in places like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Irresponsibly dumped plastics disrupt the environment and harm wildlife. A team at SwRI has a solution. They are fine tuning a process to turn mountains of plastics into an oil, which can then be turned back into plastic, other chemicals or fuels. They are also helping big companies enter a new era in plastics recycling. Listen now as SwRI Chemical Engineer Eloy Flores discusses pyrolysis for plastics, a new way to recycle and clean up the planet.