Mowing lawns is a summertime rite of passage in America, providing young people with experience pitching their business to neighbors, keeping a work schedule, and making and managing money—from purchasing the gasoline that fuels the operation, to budgeting for the oils and lubricants that keep a mower’s engine and blades running smoothly.
As petrochemicals and recycling advancements give old plastic new life over and over again—from shoes and clothes made of recycled plastic recovered from the ocean, to plastic bottles being chemically recycled into fuel and a raw material to make new petrochemicals—what it means to “recycle” is changing right before our eyes.
Plastic roads and buildings, the influence of energy and petrochemicals in geopolitics, and chemical and molecular recycling processes that could create a truly circular economy for plastic products were just a few of the topics discussed at AFPM’s 44th International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) in San Antonio last week.
Preface: So, I was asked if we can somehow tie Moon Day with petrochemicals. I said that I’m pretty sure space suits are made from synthetic materials, so that’s a pretty good tie-in.
Pundits and politicians often frame energy technologies like solar generation and liquid fuels as competitors, not companions. But a visit to Flint Hills Resources’ Pine Bend refinery might change their minds.
