Plastic is oil - why are the super powers not jumping on this?

[charlie]

The   speech is all in Japanese. Just read the subtitles and watch
http://www.flixxy.com/convert-plastic-to-oil.htm

[zenins]

Very interesting.

Two questions:

1. How much energy is required to return the plastic to oil ?

2. Would more energy be released by burning the plastic in a furnace to produce heat for steam generation
    than returning it to oil first, then burning it ?

All effort/cost has to be considered.  For example, why are we not all driving electric cars ?
The effort to generate. store and deliver the electricity exceeds the costs of using oil/gasoline at the moment.
Electric cars themselves may not produce air pollution, but generating the electricity used does produce waste
in the form of CO2 or spent uranium.  Hydro electricity is probably the least polluting, but if dams are built
to store water to drive turbines, then the environmental impact on the land and people can be quite negative.
Just look at what is happening in Brazil with the Belo Monte project on the Xingu River ...
http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam

We have to think about the way we live, we consume a lot of energy and produce a lot of waste,
I personally would like to consume less and produce less waste, but it is very tough to do so,
unless everyone else is willing to do so as well