According to the current statistics, there is continuous rise of
consumption and thus cost of petroleum oil, although there has
been a temporary drop in demand growth due to the international
financial crisis. International Energy Outlook 2008 reports the
world consumption of petroleum oil as 84 million barrels per day
and that of natural gas as 19 million barrels oil equivalent per day.
This way, the oil and gas reserve available can meet only 43 and
167 years further. On the other hand, the utility of plastics cannot
be reduced due to its wide field applications and thus results in
increase in plastics waste. However, the huge amount of plastic
wastes produced may be treated with suitably designed method to
produce fossil fuel substitutes. The method should be superior in
all respects (ecological and economical). So, a suitable process
which can convert waste plastic to hydrocarbon fuel if designed
and implemented then that would be a cheaper partial substitute
of the petroleum without emitting any pollutants. It would also
take care of hazardous plastic waste and reduce the import of crude
oil. The analysis of different methods described in previous section
indicate mechanical recycling is widely adapted method by
different countries, however gradually the catalytic pyrolysis of
plastic to fuel is gaining momentum and being adopted in different
countries recently due to its efficiency over other process in all
respects. In addition, this method would produce a substitute for
the fossil fuel, so be an alternate source of energy. Depletion of
non-renewable source of energy such as fossil fuel at this stage
demands the improvement of this technique. This sets the future
trends in plastics recycling as an Industry.