Cleaner fuel made from plastic waste

                Scientists have found a way to use plastic trash to create a cleaner diesel-like fuel that could power vehicles, an advance that may turn landfills into potential energy sources in future. The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science and University of California in the US hope to scale up the technique to allow for it to be used in actually reducing plastic trash. The new method involves mixing the plastics with organometallic catalyst, made from readily available molecule that were then doped with metal iridium. The reaction caused the bonds holding the plastic together to weaken, allowing them to be more easily torn apart. Researchers were able to use the broken down material to create a diesel-like fuel.