Plastoil
Several companies in the Philippi area are actively working to extract economic value from waste. In the case of Plastoil, the value comes from end-of-life plastics.
Plastoil South Africa is planning a plastic-to-diesel facility in Philippi using the plastic trash that otherwise ends up in our streets or in our landfills. Eventually much of this terrible pollutant ends up in our ocean.
Plastoil, an exciting addition to the waste recycling cluster in Philippi, is presently considering setting up a waste-sorting facility that will separate general waste into recyclables and organics.
The process will deliver organic material that is suitable for Agriprotein’s fly farming enterprise while the plastics from the sorting operation can be used in the plastic-to-diesel facility.
Plastoil has the South African rights to a patented process owned by the Dutch company Petrogas which takes so-called end-of-life plastics and converts them into to two oils – 50 ppm diesel and a light hydrocarbon by-product. The Plastoil process can handle up to 80% of conventional plastic waste and can transform one kilogram of plastic into 0.85 litres of fuel. Plastoil is currently negotiating with the City of Cape Town to secure access to the plastic waste that currently gets trucked on contract to the landfills.
Plastoil is also investigating turning incinerable waste to energy through high heat, low emissions technology. The heat from incineration of waste would be used to drive turbines which can produce electricity which may help the energy shortages which have been identified in Philippi.
