From Plastic to Hope

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i came up with a story that changed the

way

i look at the world and that has in

great part

influenced me here there was

a super successful entrepreneur giving a

conference

and he was talking about the bright

future that technology

has ahead finishing his talk

out of the crowd he’s asked

since you’re a millionaire

philanthropist that’s done so much

and so many things what do you believe

is the problem that we have for the

world

and how would you solve it

he took a moment to think about it and

he answered

we do not have one problem we have three

we have a problem of unsustainable

development

we have a problem of economic inequality

and we have a problem of spiritual

disconnection

and if i could only solve one of these

i would choose to start with spiritual

connection

because when a person is connected

to his inner self to nature to god

he does not allow to be unjust with

nature

with the environment or with his fellow

mankind

and it is that idea that spiritual

connection

leads to a mindset that can transform

the way we see the world

has brought me to one of the most

astounding inventions of our century

today i’m part of a team that has been

developing the technology

to transform any type of plastic waste

into five different types of clean fuels

in an

innovative sustainable cost efficient

and low impact way

it wasn’t that long ago that i moved to

tulum

it was three years ago that i arrived to

what i consider

to be a paradise beautiful beaches

underground rivers 800 year old mayan

archaeology

sitting out there waiting for us to

explore in the jungle

probably one of the most remote

locations

and yet because of the last 10 years

growth from tourism and the economy

has brought one of the largest

consumptions of plastic for the region

and today we see plastic polluting

everything from our streets

from our jungles our ocean and our

beaches

the thing is plastic is not just a

problem for tulum

it’s a problem for the whole wide world

we see how we’ve been overwhelmed our

environments

no matter the country and no matter the

place

in 1950 we started developing plastic

in industrial uses from then until now

we have created 9 billion

tons of plastic waste

of those more than 6 billion

has ended without any other future ahead

of it

than a final disposition in landfills in

the best cases

or end up polluting sensitive

environments

in the worst and we tend to forget the

mismanagement

implied think about all the

inefficiencies

and how plastic to this day has only

degraded

to be eaten by fish creating that sixty

percent of seafood

has a presence of nano and micro

plastics

every time we eat we are at risk

of putting plastic into our bodies

this cannot be so and it cannot continue

as such

it’s been for the last 10 months that i

have joined

efforts with the care with me foundation

in tulum

along with a talented group

of bright individuals that are working

relentlessly

to bring this technology into market

where we can conveniently transform

plastic any type of plastic think about

high density plastic low density plastic

pvc

polyethylene polypropylene

it can come from toothbrushes car parts

you think about it and every part of our

life has an interaction with plastic

injury

it’s brought us to the point of

civilization

where we can sustain population with

cheap logistics and transportation

medicine

food which is packaged and

all of our technology involves plastic

in some way or another

can we live without it i don’t think so

and i don’t think we should

because plastic has brought us to a

place

where we don’t need to extract any more

resources from nature

that were very hazardous such as glass

and imagine how many trees have been

saved

by the plastic that we’ve created yet

the real enemy is not plastic it’s the

behavior we show towards it

it’s this carelessness and recklessness

about it

and the ignorance of the value it holds

that has not

allowed us to use plastic as a valuable

resource it is

think about natural and biological

cycles

plants and nature do not see waste

that’s a label that only humans use and

if we take the label of waste from

plastic

what we have is one of the most valuable

resources

that by reverse engineering we can turn

back

and create five types of different

clean fuels one of the things that we’ve

been working on

is how can plastic be sourced

from different places in order for it to

stop dispersing into our environments

in such a manner that we can have

regenerative programs that clean up

dirty sites from landfills to beach

cleanups

and gives plastic a grateful way to move

forward

into more mobilizing and energetic

capacities

that it holds it’s been for a long

time that the tools we’ve had at our

disposal

have been limited in how we manage

and conduct our relationship with

plastic

instead of being grateful for the many

benefits that it has brought to mankind

we’ve become sour

we’ve seen how its negative effects

on the planet have put us at risk

in probably one of the most sensitive

and hazardous times

for natural environments worldwide

and we thought about what happened to

plastic

when we throw it away we fall

into the delusion with

when what we’re really doing is throwing

it at someone

to pick up for us and it’s that type of

mentality

of carelessness that has also

been part of recycling

recycling is a myth from the 9 billion

tons of plastic that we have created

only 9 has been recycled

and its limitations and

probably one of the most least

looked at aspects of recycling is the

process behind it

which is not environmentally sound or

convenient

having to separate plastic that has been

already mixed by consumption and we find

landfills creating environmental debt

concentrating tons of plastic from all

of us

in the hope that generations to come

will know what to do with it

for now what’s left is having it

dispersed through our environments

degrading ever smaller pieces

and in the worst of cases it’s burnt

putting some of the most hazardous

toxins

out in the atmospheres contributing to

gas emissions of the greenhouse effect

this puts us at a time where the united

nations

along with over 190 countries worldwide

have taken action to do something about

plastic waste

and plastic management and i’ve been

lucky enough

to meet edgar padilla a mexican engineer

from salamanca guanajuato

who just like color tv back in the day

has invented

a new way of looking at plastic

a way that allows us to bring it

into a new life cycle where it can

become clean

and valuable fuels that are not

only less contaminant

than com most conventional ones having

50 percent less

carbon dioxide emissions a hundred

percent less

sulfur dioxide emissions and no lead or

heavy metals present in it

and the fact that we use it implies that

we are cleaning up our planet

and we are putting every dime of a

dollar

into kilograms of plastic to be treated

and to be revalued as a resource where

we can obtain

clean energy in a transition to

other types of renewables in the near

future

we know this is not the only answer and

we hope it’s not just the best answer

because we come from a long tradition of

engineers

that have been looking into and studying

the process of pyrolysis and it’s

probably one of the least known

solutions for plastic waste

yet it does have its limitations

and it’s been the creativity and

ingenuity

of a mexican engineer that is now

putting this technology to the market

that

had the idea to use vibration

to use temperature and heat

to transform any type of plastic into

clean fuels

and i’m here with proof

that this is happening and it’s already

happening in tulum

was not brought to tulum to get a suntan

it’s been us that by consumption

have brought it with us and now we have

the tools

and the technology that a mexican

engineer has developed in mexico in

salamanca guanajuato

the cradle of refinery industry and oil

and from that vision it came to him

that he could rethink a process that’s

been existing at least

since world war ii called pyrolysis

pyrolysis is a technical name for the

change

in the state of matter from solid into

gas

usually you have to use what’s called a

catalyst

in order to produce a chemical process

that could allow any of the products

obtained

to be put into an internal combustion

engine

however the material used as a catalyst

known as cyalite is not only hazardous

in its extraction it also produces

cancer and it’s toxic when humans

breathe it in

once it’s emitted into the atmosphere

making pyrolysis one of the most

inconvenient solutions to the plastic

problem

that our generation has faced however

it was the brilliance of introducing

vibration and the thought of quantum

mechanics

that has allowed our process of

non-catalytic pyrolysis

to break the carbon chains

present in plastic into ever smaller

pieces

doing it using only temperature and heat

so imagine this imagine if we could take

any type of plastic shred it

to make it into even smaller pieces and

place it

in a reactor that will be heated to 350

up to 600 degrees celsius transforming

the plastic matter in its solid state

into gas in the absence of oxygen

so we’re not burning plastic we’re

transforming it

and that allows us to continue a process

of refining where we obtain from a

hundred percent of plastic

five percent paraffin with a medical

grade that can be used for makeup

from beach cleanups all over the world

or

candles in communities that can benefit

from these type of craft activities

then we obtain at least 12 percent

kerosene which can be later used as a

base for jet fuel

or directly in industrial flares

and afterwards it gets more interesting

we get diesel

55 acetanes with ultra low sulfur diesel

with no presence of lead and heavy

metals

allowing it to be one of the most

powerful fuels that we can create

out of plastic and last but definitely

not least

we get in a cold part of the process

gasoline

with 102 octanes that

not only allows us to have 20 percent

more

power when we use it but also

gives our engines 20 more

lifetime because it no longer keeps

any of the rubber in it

and all of this process is fueled

by the butane propane gas that we

receive

at the end of it which goes back to

heating the reactor

and transforming any type of plastic

specially disposable that have no other

future ahead but to pollute our

environment

into clean fuels changing the paradigm

from what a plastic footprint we’ve

created

that not nature or mankind knows how to

balance or mitigate

into a carbon footprint that is not only

minimized but

also mitigated it’s the plants by

themselves

along as a million inventions

by mankind that are starting to deal

with the carbon footprint that we’ve

created

if we can change our mindset if we can

come from a place

where everything is possible tulum can

keep being the dream it is

and we can start waking up to a better

world

where together we can transform all of

our waste

into clean energy that will fuel our

future

and have us stave away from fossil fuels

that are

only hell doing hazard

to our environment and that is why we’re

partnering up

with foundations ngos

companies and everyone and anyone

willing

to put forth their action into

deplastifying our environments

and we’re raising a million dollars to

start a four-ton

plant that can be placed in tulum

to preserve one of the most beautiful

and most sensitive environments that the

world has ever seen

it’s now it’s possible and here’s the

proof

that the future is now and we no longer

need to think about leaving a debt to be

paid by future generations

if we start taking action here and we

start taking action now

with initiatives like the transformation

of plastic to fuel

that is a local solution to a global

problem

so think with me and join us in

taking this technology to the world

allowing us to democratize

this innovation and put it in the hands

of everyone and anyone

from companies that manage plastic to

companies that

operate and benefit from plastic to

ourselves

we’ve seen that humans consume at least

two kilograms of plastic

can you imagine the world we’d live in

if

instead of seeing plastic as

something to throw away and to mind

less about what happens to it and

instead

be grateful that we can place it into a

process

that can set it free and transform the

world

that we want to leave for future

generations

the time is now and we’re here to

transform

plastic into waste just as we’re here to

transform the mindset

that this is a valuable resource and

that

hope has not been lost

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