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Our visit to Agri-Plas Inc.
Groundbreaking technology converts plastics back to oil!
We recently visited one Oregon company that for the last 15 years has been trying to make a difference in the amount of plastic agricultural waste that is either burned, or buried by farmers. Traditionally, farmers have either stock piled these items until they could burn them(releasing huge amounts of hydrocarbons) or bury them(where it may take hundreds of years to slowly disintegrate while releasing its cargo of toxic chemicals into the surrounding soil and water), or pay to have them removed and disposed of in a landfill.
Most modern agricultural practices involve the heavy use of petroleum based plastics, including nursery pots, trays, greenhouse sheeting, hay bale wrap, twine, chemical containers, pallets, and dozens of other items. Agri-Plas Inc in the little town of Brooks, Oregon has been collecting these waste products from the farmers and recycling them into what is known as feed-stock that can be sold back to the plastics manufacturers and turned into new products such as automobile parts and other items that can be manufactured using recycled plastics.
Recently, in conjunction with a company called Agilyx, they have begun to turn this same waste into pure synthetic crude oil. Their mission is to improve the earth's environment as the leading provider of technologies that enable customers to convert plastics to petroleum products - simply, safely and profitably. They envision an entire planet with zero mixed waste plastic entering the landfills and where all plastic is recycled or converted to petroleum products. This is groundbreaking technology that allows the plastics to be completely returned to their original state, and can then be reused for almost any application, unlike the feed-stock that has limitations to its applications.
Together, these two companies are recycling over 15 million tons a year of plastics from agricultural operations in the five state area of the Pacific Northwest and have plans to license their technology nationwide.
Although we arrived late in the afternoon, we were given a full tour of the facility, which was loaded to the gills with a huge variety of plastics, all cleaned, neatly organized, and awaiting recycling. The piece de resistance, was the Agilyx conversion processor, which converts the plastics to synthetic crude. This was a large machine that uses its own waste in the form of methane to help drive the process. Outside, a large fuel tank was being filled which is then picked up and finished being processed by a local refinery.
While we believe that there are no ?good? petroleum based plastics of any kind, and that they must be high on mankind?s list of products for which we must find a environmentally responsible alternative, this process does allow us to at least recapture and reuse those products that are currently in use. Just standing in the midst of the staggeringly large piles of materials collected by this relatively small company, helped us realize the true scope of the problem. Multiplied by the amount of agriculture plastics being used worldwide, one realizes that just this one industry alone has a massive addition to oil and a responsibility to look for alternatives as soon as possible.
To learn more about these companies, visit their websites at:
www.agriplasinc.com
www.agilyx.com
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