Research at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) suggests that using plastic waste as a fuel additive in the cement industry can help with a substantial reduction in marine plastic pollution in Thailand. Instead of converting plastic into electricity, AIT researchers estimated the potential of converting plastic into heat. While the efficiency of converting plastic into electricity was a mere 22 percent, the efficiency goes up to 85 percent when the same plastic is converted into heat.
Early last year, AIT researchers selected two dumpsites (one in Saraburi, the other in Nakhon Nayok) to analyze the dynamics of plastic waste. These dumpsites are currently used by INSEE Ecocycle, a subsidiary of Siam City Cement Group to process plastic waste for the cement industry and this is where the cement industry comes into the picture. If plastic waste is converted into heat and used as an additive to the fuel (a process known as “co- processing”), it can lead to multiple benefits, including massive recovery of plastic waste, negligible residue, higher efficiency, and most importantly, a major reduction in marine pollution.
