We live in a world that has been powered by fossil fuels since the industrial revolution two hundred years ago. But we are now facing the challenge of trying to wean ourselves off the use of this valuable resource. For years, we treated fossil fuels as an abundant, cheap, simple energy source. We did not understand the damage we were doing to our planet.
Similarly, oil was turned into relatively cheap, plastic products which were, and still are, carelessly discarded leading to the present-day pollution epidemic.
Images of plastic waste fouling the oceans and lands are causing governments, from the European Union to India to California, to ban single-use plastic items.
Plastic is an amazing material that makes our lives better.
For example, light-weight, low-cost, single-use plastic packaging allows us to store food for longer, thereby providing affordable food to people around the world, store medicine etc. Banning the use of single-use plastic will lead to higher costs and other issues of food supply.
There are other solutions to achieve the goal of the ban on single-use plastic. Centralized recycling is already starting. Coca Cola, for example, is pledging to recycle one bottle for every bottle it sells by 2030. However, the problem with centralized recycling is that the cost of transporting plastic waste to a central facility uses significant amounts of energy and drives up costs.
There is a different way to look at the problem. We can view plastic waste as a resource and not as garbage. It is simply in the wrong shape after it has been used the first time. This plastic “resource” can be used locally, everywhere in the world where the waste is generated, to make needed products. All it takes is equipment that has a low capital cost, is physically small, uses low amounts of energy, and employs a process that is plastic-reuse friendly. This can solve the problem of our plastic pollution.
Omachron Technologies Inc. has developed such equipment. We have been working on this for much of the last decade. The equipment is low cost, has a small footprint, consumes small amounts of energy, uses 100% pre and post-consumer waste, and can reuse the same material ten times or more. It can be used to make durable dinnerware, roofing and siding materials, landscaping materials, durable food-storage containers, indoor and outdoor furniture, solar and wind-energy collection and storage systems, and many more products.
This ability to transform waste into new products is a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.
It’s an opportunity whose time has come!
