I personally did not see any data for the amount of product recovered per ton, nor the quality om product returned. Plastic is made from the byproducts/waste of refining crude oil. If the oil recovered from the plastic recycling process were viable as a fuel source, then why not recover it in the initial refining process instead if at time of recycle. Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to refine the product at the beginning rather than at the end of its life cycle?
I did not see any data on how much oil per ton of plastic either.
But I'm sure it would be more economical than throwing in a landfill or the ocean.
As for plastic being a by-product of the oil refining process; that is not what I have found. It is actually between Petrol and Kerosene which is very high in the column not a by-product.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Refining process transforms crude oil into different petroleum products – these are converted to yield useful chemicals including “monomers” (a molecule that is the basic building blocks of polymers).
In the refining process, crude oil is heated in a furnace, which is then sent to the distillation unit, where heavy crude oil separates into lighter components called fractions.
One of these, called
Naphtha, it is the crucial compound to make a large amount of plastic. However, there are other means, such as using gas.
(
Pictorial representation of the Fractional Distillation Process)