Start-up devours pollution with new plastic recycling method
Our appetite for
plastic continues unabated. But rather than make more, what if we could make do
with what we have? Recycling plastic has
been a stop-start endeavor, plagued by limitations caused by the large variety
of plastics we churn out, waste contamination, and the energy-intensive
processes which can make recycling an economic moot point. It's estimated
only 9% of plastic ever created has been recycled. But with
the help of a chemical process, Canadian Miranda Wang and her company BioCellection want
to change that.
Unmaking plastic is
tough. There's limited evidence some plastics can biodegrade (one solution
requires mealworms) but largely plastics photodegrade in the sun. It's a lengthy process, and
the truth is we can only estimate how long it takes. What's certain is that
plastic is outliving millions of birds dying with stomachs filled with detritus, or ocean life
consuming microplastics flowing up the food chain -- all the way
to us. With 8 million metric tons of plastic finding its way into the oceans
every year and millions more piling up in landfill, recycling is of vital
importance.
Wang is looking to
break the inertia by making it cheaper to recycle plastic -- and not just some
plastics, but all. BioCellection's
mission to "make plastic waste infinitely recyclable," says Wang.
"We live in a plastic age, and we can't avoid that material... (But)
frankly our world hasn't been moving forward in innovating plastic recycling
for the past decades."....
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/09/world/miranda-wang-tomorrows-hero/index.html
