SOLUTION TO THE ISLAND OF WASTE

I’ve been reading a lot about plastic recycling and the difficulties that surround it, so I was interested to come across the article in the March 2018 issue that talks about stopping waste at the entrance to harbours, before it reaches the open sea.

Personally, I want to deal with the plastic that’s already in the ocean – the swirling mass comprising hundreds of thousands of tons of waste. I believe I have got a solution to this immense problem, one that happens on-site in the middle of the ocean.

There are various ways of turning plastic – which is made using crude oil – back into fuel, be it liquid petroleum gas (LPD) or diesel. Essentially, boil the plastic in a vacuum at about 300 to 400°C, distil the resultant gas and then use the distillate to fuel the process. The plan would entail parking a number of suitably converted deep-sea oil-drilling platforms near the accumulation of waste, converting the plastic to fuel, and then shipping it to the nearest refinery to check on quality, and ultimately dispense it to the public.

In this way, we’d be killing two birds with one stone (so to speak, obviously). We would be cleaning the ocean of plastic waste, and retrieving an almost unlimited supply of fuel.

KOBUS STANDER