Scheduled to start in late 2010, the project will clean up ocean debris, beginning with the Plastic Vortex in the North Pacific Gyre; stop future plastic waste flows from entering oceans; and test a new waste-to-fuel technology for the remediation of non-recyclable plastics and plastic waste.
While Project Kaisei will collect plastic debris from the ocean for remediation testing, Covanta Energy will use the debris to test its new catalytic waste-to-fuel technology to convert the plastic into a diesel substitute.
The project, which aims to convert 50 tons of marine debris into renewable fuel each year, will thus provide a sustainable way for communities around the world to deal with non-recyclable plastics and plastic waste and help initiate a larger scale cleanup effort of the ocean waste.
Covanta Energy senior vice president and chief sustainability officer Paul Gilman said that it is estimated that roughly 90% of plastics made are not recycled and this poses a significant opportunity for reuse, recycling and energy recovery.
“We believe our partnership with Project Kaisei will bring worldwide attention to the issue of plastic in our ocean and shed light on how sustainable solutions such as waste-to-fuel and energy-from-waste can support marine debris remediation,” Gilman said.
