{"655688":{"#nid":"655688","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Atlanta Company Converts Hard-to-recycle Plastics into Fuel","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EATLANTA \u0026mdash; An Atlanta company is making the world a cleaner place with new technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENexus Circular in southwest Atlanta has converted millions of pounds of landfill-bound plastics back into oil and wax to be used for new plastics production.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis is important because about 27 million tons of plastic went into landfills last year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis potentially harmful garbage takes hundreds of years to break down.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany residents place unrecyclable products into single-stream recycling bins, including plastic bags and food film, that are too expensive or complex to recycle, according to Cherokee County recycling manager Troy Brazie.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBrazie said about 20% of what he receives from customers at his facility ends up in a landfill.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;There is the thought process that well, it\u0026rsquo;s plastic so it\u0026rsquo;s going to be recycled because I\u0026rsquo;m putting it in recycling,\u0026rdquo; Brazie said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat hard-to-recycle plastic is exactly what Nexus founder Jeff Gold wants. In his 120,000 square foot plant, he converts 50 tons of plastics to fuel a day.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat oil and wax are sold to partners including Shell and Chevron Philips to make new plastic.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELast year Nexus received a major investment from Cox Enterprises to get the operation up to scale.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The amount of material (we\u0026rsquo;ve) diverted, almost 4 million pounds of plastic that would otherwise be going to the landfill, back into useful valuable products that they themselves are recycled circular processes,\u0026rdquo; Gold said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology professor \u003Cstrong\u003ECarsten Sievers\u003C\/strong\u003E said Nexus is one of a handful of companies in the U.S. and Europe using this type of molecular recycling.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHe said converting it back into the building blocks of new plastic is a vast improvement from sitting in a landfill.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESievers said potentially dangerous plastic breaks down into our oceans and water supply.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I think managing our environmental footprint is generally something we should all desire,\u0026rdquo; he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EBy Dave Huddleston, WSB-TV\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECarsten Sievers\u003C\/strong\u003E is an associate professor and Thomas J. Pierce Jr. Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"An Atlanta company is making the world a cleaner place with new technology."}],"uid":"27513","created_gmt":"2022-02-22 20:49:19","changed_gmt":"2022-02-22 20:49:19","author":"Walter Rich","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2022-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"655687":{"id":"655687","type":"image","title":"Carsten Sievers is an associate professor\u00a0in the School of Chemical and\u00a0Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.","body":null,"created":"1645562702","gmt_created":"2022-02-22 20:45:02","changed":"1645562820","gmt_changed":"2022-02-22 20:47:00","alt":"Carsten Sievers is an associate professor\u00a0in the School of Chemical and\u00a0Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.","file":{"fid":"248591","name":"screenshot_777 copy1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screenshot_777%20copy1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screenshot_777%20copy1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":47576,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/screenshot_777%20copy1.jpg?itok=JihVT-Uw"}}},"media_ids":["655687"],"groups":[{"id":"372221","name":"Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"188020","name":"go-rbi"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWalter Rich\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["walter.rich@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}