It appears that one of the main sources of litter around the U.S, plastic shopping bags, can be converted into diesel, natural gas, and other sources of petroleum
The conversion produces more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels -- diesel, for example -- that can be blended with existing ultra-low-sulfur diesels and biodiesels. Other products, such as natural gas gasoline, waxes and lubricating oils such as engine oil and hydraulic oil also can be gained from these shopping bags.
Americans tend to throw away about 100 billion plastic bags a year, a pretty glaring number, and only about 13% of these are recycled. The rest of the bags end up in landfills or escape to the wild, blowing across the landscape and entering waterways.
"Over a period of time, this material starts breaking into tiny pieces, and is ingested with plankton by aquatic animals."remarked Brajendra Kumar Sharma, a senior research scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center who led the research. The ISTC is a part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.
The process involves heating a bag in an oxygen free chamber, a process known as pyrolysis, and can recover almost 80% of the fuel in distillation.
I really found this article interesting. For someone who cares very much about the protection of the environment, I still found this article a little bit disheartening. For example, even though this reduces litter, the amount of petroleum produce would in turn create more air pollution, which just moves the pollution to the air instead of on the ground. Either way, just the fact that we now are able to do this is absolutely fascinating.
N.O.S Themes:
Science is changing- Originally, these plastic bags were were regarded as having no use, but now are able to become certain types of fuels
Role of Curiosity - Sharma conducted this experience out of curiosity, and was able to obtain some extremely important results
Science is based on evidence - Sharma and his team provided evidence using pyrolysis.
I agree with your point of moving pollution into the air rather than from the ground. Using plastic bags as fuel does come with this rather large disadvantage. You would have to look at the effects of ground and water pollution versus the effects of air pollution. I am curious to know if this method of making fuel would work well with local, or even national policies to reduce the number of bags thrown away and increase recycling efforts. Using plastic shopping bags as fuel could have a huge impact on the environment, whether it be good for getting rid of plastic bags or bad for polluting the air.
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