From Plastic to Hope
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[Music]
[Music]
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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