Singapore – South Australian scientist David Thompson has developed a system that uses anaerobic digestion technology to turn a range of plastics, including polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, into methane. His POET System process also produces environmentally safe, organic by-products that can be used as garden fertiliser and mulch.
Although initially developed for plastics, Thompson has tweaked the technology to process combined waste. He said this would be ideal for the fast food sector as its waste was often not able to be recycled because it was not made of the right material or it was contaminated with food waste.
“We’re exploring the potential of using the technology for a fast food chain where we can look at processing the food waste together with the plastic, paper and cardboard packaging all at once,” Thompson, the POET System CEO said.
Thompson will file an application for patent protection this month and is looking for an investor to help build a demonstration plant capable of processing, initially, 5000 tonnes of plastic a year.
