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Our local Food Co-op collects number 5 plastic to "recycle" because we can otherwise only recycle number 2 and number 3 plastic, the 2 and 3 plastics are popular to recycle because they can be turned in to new objects but the number 5 can not be easily turned in to a new object, the popular way to turn number 5 in to a new object is to grind it up and press it in to a mold while injecting new plastic in to the mold, so there is a limited number of things that you can make, it's also an expensive way to make an object.
So the other day I was at our food co-op and I saw the pile of garbage bags of number 5 plastic, it looks like they fill up a garbage bag every other day or so and it all gets trucked to a facility that turns it in to fuel, I'm not sure if they just burn it to produce electricity or if they make it in to liquid fuel.
I'm currently watching a documentary about plastic in the ocean, most of it's more or less micro plastic grit, plastic soup and it makes me wonder if there is a way to collect that plastic out of the water and use that as an ocean going fuel, granted this plastic is dispersed over a great area, but they figure there is 100,000 tons or more of plastic out there and because of the currents it collects in areas, maybe this is the future, mining our trash.
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