Plastic Trash to Fuel Technology?

D.C. Start-Up Aims to Pitch Oil Made From Plastic Waste

Plastic soda bottles, Big Gulp cups and empty sour cream containers get fed into the top of the three-story machine. About 10 minutes later, out the other side comes a light-brown synthetic oil that can be converted into fuel for a truck or a jet airplane.

Environmental experts didn’t immediately know what to make of the company’s claims. A research director with the environmental organization Greenpeace said that he hadn’t heard of this particular technology but that his instinct was to remain skeptical.

While Envion pitches its technology as one that should receive the approval of environmentalists, Davies at Greenpeace was dubious. “To make it big, this company needs people to waste plastic,” he said. “We need to question whether we should be using plastic at all to begin with.”