Our modern world relies heavily on plastics, especially for one time use items such as packaging, straws, cutlery, stir sticks etc. There were two major problems associated with plastics: they are made from oil, a diminishing resource, and they do not biodegrade, causing pollution. One solution to this problem, being embraced by many people are “green plastics”, or “bio-plastics”, which are derived from corn, wheat, sugar beets and sugar cane. While these plastics initially seem environmentally friendlier than fossil fuel-based alternatives, they compete for land with food produced for consumption and are not necessarily better than the conventional plastics. Athena Institute International conducted study to compare the environmental burdens of consumer packaging made from common plastics such as PET and polypropylene (PP) to those associated with polylactide (PLA), a widely used corn-based plastic. Here is a summary of their findings: How "green" are green plastics?
An often overlooked solution is to recycle plastics. Omachron Science has developed compact, low cost equipment which uses 100% waste plastic such as discarded water bottles, and turns it into finished useful products including new bottles, housewares or souvenirs. The associated equipment is low cost, compact, and uses very little energy. It takes about 7 kWh to 40 pounds of garbage, have no economic value, into finished goods which can be sold for a value far exceeding the recycling costs.
This recycling process can typically reuse plastic 5 to 10 times before new additives must be used to stabilize it.
If we can effectively recycle 20% of the plastic currently being discarded, locally, economically, we can have a positive economic and environmental impact.
For more information about 100% regrind molding systems contact Omachron Technologies at https://www.omachrontechnologies.com/