Piles of plastic waste often end up buried underground or dumped in oceans, harming wildlife in the environment.

With Earth Day approaching, we're discussing a new way to recycle, turning loads of plastics into useful chemicals and fuels.

That's next on this episode of Technology Today.

We live with technology, science, engineering, and the results of innovative research every day. Now, let's understand it better. You're listening to the Technology Today podcast presented by Southwest Research Institute.

Hello and welcome to Technology Today. I'm Lisa Benya.

Earth Day is April 22nd and this month we're learning about an SWRI program aimed at

protecting the planet from loads of plastic waste.

Some estimates suggest billions of tons of plastic waste are piled up in landfills and oceans.

Our guest today is SWRI chemical engineer Elo Flores.

His team is using a process known as pyrolysis to break down plastic waste and turn it into an oil,

recycling it for fuels and other useful chemicals.

They're also helping big companies enter a new era in plastics recycling.

Thank you for joining us, Aloi.

Well, thank you, Lisa.

So let's start at the beginning.

For years, much of the United States plastic waste that wasn't sent to a landfill or recycled was actually shipped out of the country.

Where did it go and how was it disposed of?

Well, like you said, Lisa, most of the recycled plastics are actually sent overseas and not handled within the United States.

And where they're ending up, unfortunately, is in the

oceans due to mismanagement on the end of the end receivers of our recycled plastics. But I guess more

importantly, 75% of the U.S. plastics that we put in our recycle bins ends up in landfills. So even if you have a recycle bin at home and you put that on the curve,

you can expect most of it will end up in a landfill.

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