'Plastic-eating monster' turns plastics into fuel

Talk about full circle. Plastic, a petroleum product, can now be turned into fuel by a company in New York, NPR reports.

Niagara Falls-based JBI Inc. said it can sell the recovered oil for $100 a barrel after putting it through its patented process for plastic waste. From NPR:

It all starts with a machine known as the Plastic-Eating Monster. Thousands of pounds of shredded milk jugs, water bottles and grocery bags tumble into a large tank, where they’re melted together and vaporized. This waste comes from landfills and dumps from all over the United States.

JBI categorizes its fuel as a renewable because it comes from recycled plastic, even though it’s still a fossil fuel. The company’s CEO, John Bordynuik, said its process is a lot more efficient than previous attempts to turn plastic into fuel.

“When there have been attempts in the past to make fuel from plastic, it’s been low-quality, low-flashpoint, kind of sludgy,” he says. “In this case here, we’re making a very highly refined, consistent product that’s within specifications of any standardized fuel.”