Plastic2Oil Inc (PTOI)

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< Startup Converts Plastic To Oil, And Finds A Niche
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Heard on Morning Edition

March 19, 2012DAVID GREENE, HOST:

A new and possibly more environmentally friendly way to produce oil: it involves plastic - yes, like those soda bottles you discard.

Only 7 percent of plastic waste in the U.S. is recycled each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Well, now a startup company in Niagara Falls says it can increase that amount while also reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil.

From member station WBFO, Daniel Robison has more.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY)

DANIEL ROBISON, BYLINE: This machine's known as the plastic-eating monster. Thousands of pounds of shredded milk jugs, water bottles and grocery bags tumble into a large tank where it's melted together and vaporized. This waste comes from landfills and dumps from all over the United States.

JOHN BORDYNUIK: Basically, they've been mining their piles for us and sending them here.

ROBISON: John Bordynuik runs his namesake company, JBI, Inc. He's invented a process that converts plastic into oil by rearranging its hydrocarbon chains. According to tests by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, JBI's patented technology is efficient, with close to 90 percent of plastics coming out as fuel. Bordynuik says that makes the case for this kind of recycling to go mainstream.

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

ROBISON: JBI executive Bob Molodynia points to a spout at the other end of the plastic-eating machine dripping a thin, brown liquid.

BOB MOLODYNIA: You could tap this right now, and this is ready to go. That's a number six fuel. That's what a lot of like U.S. Steel uses, a lot of major companies. That's what they pay the big bucks for, right there.

ROBISON: Each barrel of oil costs about $10 to produce, which JBI can sell for around $100 through a national distributor. The young company is already producing a few thousand gallons of oil a day. They've signed lucrative deals to set up operations next to companies with large volumes of plastic waste. But in its rush to grow, JBI has been accused by the SEC of overvaluing some of its assets in order to raise more funds. And John Bordynuik says it's been hard to find acceptance from potential oil buyers because JBI's product has been dubbed a green fuel.

BORDYNUIK: We don't make a synthetic other product that has problems. We make an in-spec fuel just like everyone else. In fact, if anything, the word "alternative" has a stigma attached to it, more so because of prior attempts.

ROBISON: If JBI has its way, plastics will become a significant source of domestic fuel that reduces the country's dependence on foreign oil. But just how green is JBI's recycling when it produces a fossil fuel that pollutes just like any other?

CARSON MAXTED: To enter themselves into this industry, I think that they've all bought into the idea of producing a fuel.

ROBISON: Carson Maxted is with Resource Recycling, the plastic recycling industry's trade journal. He's not sure whether converting plastic to oil can be considered recycling or even environmentally-friendly. But he says JBI's methods can co-exist and even complement current recycling practices.

MAXTED: So they're getting value from something that would otherwise go into the landfill, because the plastics, most of them are looking for, the plastics that are either not easily recycled. They're of low quality or of mixed plastic types, or that they're dirty, things that wouldn't be accepted into a recycler.

ROBISON: And since there's no lack of plastic supply or demand for oil, Maxted says this technology has the potential to transform both industries.

For NPR News, I'm Daniel Robison in Buffalo, New York.

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