The dirty little secret of plastic recycling: Most plastic recycling plants use up to 100,000 gallons of water per day, but new process eliminates water usage

From Cleantech:

Recycling. It’s good, right?

Not when there’s a global water shortage and most plastic recycling plants dispose up to 100,000 gallons of water a day. “The dirty little secret in the recycling business is the amount of water used to recycle plastic,” said Rod Rougelot, CEO of San Francisco-based ECO2 Plastics (OTCBB: ECOO).

According to Rougelot, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is, by volume, the largest polymer consumed in the U.S. “In the U.S. we currently consume about 11 billion pounds of PET per year,” said Rougelot. “Of that number, about 6 billion pounds are consumed for manufacturing of bottles. If you look at the recycling of PET, virtually all PET is sourced from bottles, which means there’s about 1.4 billion pounds actually collected for recycling.”

Because California enforces stringent laws on water usage and isn’t quick to grant permits, up until a few years ago there were virtually no U.S. West Coast PET recyclers, said Rougelot. “We’ve eliminated the use of water and the chemicals used to clean the plastic,” asserted Rougelot. “We’ve not only made an environmental choice, but we’ve eliminated the costs associated with water. No water. No wastes. No extra costs.”

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