Making plastic from air, not oil

A company that has invented a way to suck greenhouse gases from the air and turn them into useable plastic has the ambitious goal of reversing climate change.

Almost all plastic made today is created from crude oil. Making oil-based plastic releases CO₂, thereby contributing to climate change; each kilogram of plastic made from oil puts an estimated 6kg of CO₂ into the air.

However US company Newlight Technologies claims that making its AirCarbon plastic actually consumes 1kg of CO₂ for every kilogram created. And using the end product doesn’t mean buying into the huge pollution problem that plastic creates – it can be formulated to be either fully biodegradable or recyclable as required.

Other non-oil based plastics are made from plants which take up valuable agricultural land that could be used for food production – and consume water, fertilisers and pesticides. However AirCarbon plastic requires no land; instead it uses methane and CO₂ captured from city waste plants or other ‘dirty’ industrial sources.

Formed by scientists and engineers from Princeton and Northwestern Universities, Newlight’s stated mission “is to replace oil-based plastics with air-based plastics… and in doing so, capture enough carbon to stabilise and end climate change.”

Read more at www.newlight.com.