June 15, 2021—Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois are working on plastics recovery initiatives to find second lives for plastic products.
Plastics Recycling Update reports that engine oil is a potential product, and the lab has worked with Chevron Phillips Chemical toward that goal.
“Every year, we produce 380 million tons of plastics worldwide, and probably 75 percent of that goes to the landfill,” said Max Delferro, a chemical science researcher at the lab. “That comes to roughly 7 percent of the crude oil that we take from the ground gets lost.
