Researchers say single-use plastics coupled with insufficient recycling are ruining the planet. Now there’s another reason to make sure you separate your plastic waste--it can be turned into fuel. Joseph Kim reports.

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Geumneung Agro-Industrial Complex

Plastic waste is piled high.

The end-of-life plastic waste comes from homes, stores and farms.

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Plastic is thermochemically broken down

The waste is pressed and placed into the machine called a pyrolysis reactor.

The machine heats plastics upto 400 degrees Celsius.

In the pyrolysis process, the plastic waste is not burned. But instead plastic is chemically broken down into pyrolysis vapor and carbon black.

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Condensed pyrolysis vapor used as fuel

Once the vapor is condensed, it is used at power plants as fuel.

This conversion of plastic waste into petroleum is to deal with the massive amounts of plastic waste generated.

The pyrolysis oil is sent to all of the power plants across the island and used to generate new energy.

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9,000 liters of pyrolysis oil is generated from 30 tons of plastic waste a day using plastic-to-fuel conversion technology.

That can fill up 150 fuel tanks of sedans.
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If inappropriately disposed, plastic waste buried or burned harms the planet.

INTERVIEW
Kim Tae-yun / CEO, Jeju Clean Energy
It's extremely important to use recycled material rather than natural resources. We have to repurpose the plastic that often gets discarded with other waste into a valuable energy resource.
<인터뷰 : 김태윤 / (주)제주클린에너지 대표>
"천연자원을 최소화하고 재활용 자원을 최대한 사용하는게 가장 중요합니다. 종량제봉투 속에 (혼합 배출되는) 폐비닐, 폐플라스틱을 자원화해서 소중한 에너지원으로 (활용해야 합니다)."

Single-use plastics and people’s insufficient recycling habits are ruining the planet.

[Reporter] Joseph Kim
[Camera] Hyeon Gwang-hoon
[CG] Kim Eun-kyo

But garbage sorting habits, especially for plastic waste, can give trash new life.

Joseph Kim, KCTV