Hello, FilterForGoodians! I’ve discovered something extraordinary, and I couldn’t wait to get to my computer to tell you all about it! As you know, we’re all about filtering our own water on this site; no more bottled water here. We’ve made a commitment to stop buying bottled water, but the sad truth is that even if the world stopped tomorrow, the tons and tons of plastic used so far would be with us for eternity. At least that’s been the story up until now. Envion** has developed a process to turn plastic back into crude oil.

The Envion process is easy to get off the ground with simple installation and operation. It’s highly efficienct, and, most importantly, doesn’t cause more pollution in the process. Did you know that plastic production uses 8% of the world’s oil production, with 4% used as feedstock and 4% providing the energy required for plastic production? It’s easy to forget about the amount of effort and energy that goes into making all those plastic bottles, but what Envion makes us realize is that there is still energy in that plastic. Lots of it.

Here’s a great quote from the Envion site:

Envion focuses on reclaiming the valuable energy stored in plastic by converting it back into oil. Since plastic is a derivative of petroleum, plastic possesses a commensurately high level of stored energy content. The energy density of polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polypropylene (PP) is comparable to that of gasoline and is approximately 51% higher than that of coal. Unfortunately, this high level of energy literally “goes to waste” when plastic waste products are discarded. In 2007 the United States produced 58 million tons of plastic, from which 48 million tons of plastic waste entered the nation’s waste stream.

Until now, we could only recycle, throw away, burn or dump plastic bottles. None of those options are very good for the planet. Even recycling is expensive and inefficient. The miracle of Envion’s technology is that it’s a cleaner, more efficient and cost-effective option that is both sensitive to environmental concerns and has the added value of recapturing energy that would otherwise be lost.

It’s hard to deny that plastic has revolutionized our lives. It keeps us safe, clean and just makes life easy. But, we can be smarter than we’ve been. Envion is a uniquely American company that will undoubtedly change the world for the better. I can’t wait.

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