Here's some bad news -- within 10 years, the price of plastic resin will be so high that it may be economically worthwhile to dig up landfills and collect the stuff that we're throwing away today.
That's the story from Plastics & Rubber Weekly, our sister publication in Europe. Online editor Katie Coyne has a story today quoting Peter Mills, a waste specialist from New Earth Solutions Ltd., who says plastic prices are fast reaching a point where mining landfills will be a viable option.
Mills says plastics in well maintained landfills should be perfectly preserved. He adds that another source of material could be all the plastic marine debris that's causing so many problems today.
So I guess there's some good news here too -- higher resin prices will mean less litter, and people (and companies) will be willing to recycle more.
Since many experts in resin pricing think prices are going to go down next year, I wonder how many years away we really are from starting to dig in landfills for old plastic trash.
Comments (3)
This is a good idea, but impractical if you know anything about landfills. See my blog at www.ithinkmining.com for why this is such an impractical idea.
Posted by jack caldwell | August 13, 2008 6:25 PM
Posted on August 13, 2008 18:25
Believe me, you won't be opening any land fills. I was in Chicago when they accidently opened a landfill while building I57. The methane gas was a major problem. No one would put up with it today.
Posted by Ken McClelland | August 14, 2008 8:38 AM
Posted on August 14, 2008 08:38
We do not have to wait it already makes economical sense and big money for recycling plastics.
I do not understand why on earth anybody throws away any type of plastics. The technology exists to recycle plastics economically. We have constructed two plants in North America, one for dirty post-consumer PET bottles at GLOBAL P.E.T. in Perris, California and another for post-industrial PVC materials (clean or dirty) for Royal Group in the Toronto region. Both have been operating for many years successfully. In Europe, our client's have been even much more successful as the collection process and deposit laws seem to be increasing the amount available for recycling yearly.
We do not need to land-fill plastics, we do not need to use food for plastics, all we need is to start caring about our world and continue to encourage more recycling of plastics. If this means that we have to have deposits on all plastic containers, we should do the same on all paper containers and metal containers for all packaging, even Tv's, Fridges, cookies, etc.
Technology exists to recycle everything; the desire is growing but still needs more encouragement.
So Please Recycle for Many Happy Returns!
Posted by Anthony | August 14, 2008 9:53 AM
Posted on August 14, 2008 09:53