Fantastic Plastic – Adrian Griffiths, CEO of Recycling Technologies – From Oil to Plastic and Back Again, a Journey to Purer Recycling for a Cleaner Planet

We use approximately 322 million tons of plastic per year, a staggering number. Plastics are polluting our oceans, being ingested by aquatic life, and filling up landfills with no end in sight. Adrian Griffiths, CEO of Recycling Technologies, will explain how plastic is not the enemy we may think it to be though, as long as we continue to advance toward recycling plastics back to their near original form. From bags to bottles, and everything else, technological advances in chemical recycling are providing methods to convert these plastics back into oil, which is then distributed to petrochemical companies that utilize it to make more plastic. While plastic is incredibly efficient for a myriad of practical uses, and actually has a good carbon footprint in that it saves an enormous amount of carbon, the disposal of it has become a problem we can no longer ignore. The good news is that most plastics are highly recyclable as long as they can be separated into homogeneous polymer and color types. We'll look at the current state of recycling in terms of how much plastic is getting landfilled versus recycled and consider the benefits of 'down recycling' and other regenerative forms. The recycling CEO will explain thermal cracking, the process of fracturing long molecules into many shorter molecules. And we'll get insider knowledge about Recycling Technologies' 'refinery type' recycling machines capable of processing up to 7,000 tons of plastic waste per year. Adrian Griffiths will also discuss some of the foibles inherent in the recycling process, such as the need to filter out heavy metals, fluorine, chlorine, and others. Discover how Griffiths' recycling solution can be mass-produced and shipped to recycling centers anywhere in the world. The innovative CEO will delve into underlying issues and explain how this technology will change the way the world views plastic, as once discarded plastic will now have value and can be recycled for money. Thus recycling technology is the critical piece of the puzzle that will allow us to continue to enjoy the benefits of plastic, without the agonizing worry about the downside of its waste.