Plastic-Eating Monster Battles Trash

From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report in Special English.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency says there is a problem with America's garbage. Only seven percent of plastic waste in the United States is recycled each year. JBI, A new company in northern New York says it can increase that percentage and, at the same time, reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. How? The answer may surprise you. JBI has a machine it calls the "plastic-eating monster." Every hour, thousands of kilograms of waste milk jugs, water bottles, and grocery bags from landfills across the country are fed into the machine. John Bordnyniuk, who runs the company, invented a new process for turning plastic into fuel by melting all these different kinds of plastics together.John Bordnyniuk says the plastics are melted down into a black liquid. Then he uses a special chemical to turn the fluid into a vapor. This reduces the plastic to its most basic elements. These basic elements have a very high fuel value.JBI produces several thousand liters of fuel a day. It creates different grades of fuel for different industries, and it sells the fuel for up to $100 a barrel. JBI is a good company because each barrel only costs about $10 to produce.John Bordnyniuk believes plastics will become an important source of fuel for the United States. He says this will reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and reduce the amount of plastic waste in its landfills. For VOA Learning English, I'm Carolyn Presutti. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 12Nov2012)