The Plastonix system is inexpensive, generates extremely low carbon emissions, is energy efficient and simple. It uses a non-toxic, i.e. organic chemical, basically a green chemical, in its processes. It is a tested, proven and unique plastic reuse system that fuses all types of plastics together, recyclable and non-recyclable into a fused intermediate product. This product can then be transformed into transformable chips or a powered material.

There may be another reassignment as filler or parallel material for virgin plastic resins or converted to composite material, such as

• paving material
• cobblestone building blocks
• Tile beams
• Sheets
• Boards

The company uses technology that uses an infusion process which, depending on the situation, may require no sorting, cleaning or recycling.

This patent-pending technology can process all types of “petroleum-derived materials”. Petroleum-derived materials refer to petroleum-derived materials as processed in petroleum refineries. The Plastonix system can process more than one type of petroleum-derived material at a time. There could be at least ten different types of petroleum-derived materials that can be combined at the same time, all at the same time during the process.

Materials include materials naturally present in petroleum, such as paraffin wax and synthetically derived petrochemicals. The system can also handle all kinds of levels, shapes and/or material mixtures of contaminants.

Plastonix can process materials such as

• single use plastic shopping bags,
• plastic straws
• putty reinforced plastics
• elastomer
• neoprene
• asphalt shingles
• plastics combined with a flame retardant
• rubber
• automotive components

One of the very destructive petroleum-derived materials that the Plastonix system can handle is polystyrene. It is a toxic petroleum product that is often associated with land degradation and disease.

Overall, the materials may or may not be cleaned, sorted or not, and may be a mixture of virgin plastic and plastic waste.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it has awarded $254.5 million in brownfield grants to 265 communities. The grants are supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Actsays the EPA, with this bill providing $1.5 billion to “spur economic revitalization” in part by “cleaning up contaminated, polluted, or hazardous brownfield properties.”

Brownfield projects can range from cleaning up buildings contaminated with asbestos or lead to assessing and cleaning up abandoned properties that once handled hazardous chemicals, the agency explains. Once cleared, the former industrial wastelands are destined to be redeveloped.

“With today’s announcement, we are turning plague into power for communities across America,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The EPA’s Brownfields Program breathes new life into communities by helping turn contaminated and potentially hazardous sites into productive economic contributors.”

Sites on the project list include a former coal mine in Greene County, Pennsylvania, set to become a 10-megawatt solar farm, and a former landfill in the Indian community of Fort Belknap in Montana also being developed. redevelopment to become a solar farm.

The 14-page list of EPA grant recipients shows that the majority are simply vaguely described as “community-wide” funding recipients. A few others, however, show a link to a former metal, paper or recycling industry site.

Millinocket, Maine is getting $850,000 to help dismantle and clean up a paper mill that operated there from 1899 to 2013. This mill produced newsprint and other grades of paper under a list of different ownership groups.

Also in Maine, a former auto salvage yard in Rockland will receive $500,000 in cleanup funding. The Shafter salvage business was operated by several generations of this family from 1914 to 2010.

A $500,000 grant is for the cleanup of the former Reliance Battery factory in Council Bluffs, Iowa. An environmental services company involved in the cleanup said that “the former Reliance battery factory in Council Bluffs was in operation from approximately 1928 to 2019. The property [was] used for the manufacture, repair and reconditioning of lead acid batteries.

The town of Peabody, Massachusetts is receiving $650,000 to address cleanup issues at a former Clark Steel Drum property. This company refurbishes and replates steel storage containers.

Local media describe the former Nearpara Rubber Co. plant in Hamilton, New Jersey as dealing with tires there for several decades. In 2001, after its closure, the Trentonian describes crews carrying some 80,000 “orphan tires”. Now, a $500,000 grant from the EPA will be used to continue cleaning up the site.

As Regan notes, a landfill or dump is among the areas targeted for a $500,000 grant to the Fort Belknap Indian community in Montana.

Since its inception in 1995, the EPA says its “brownfield investments have generated more than $35 billion in cleanup and redevelopment,” creating “significant benefits for communities across the country.”

The list of 2022 scholarship holders is available here.