A Machine That Turns Plastic Trash Back into Oil

We're getting closer to a Back to the Future-style Mr. Fusion machine. Akinori Ito, of the Blest Corporation, has made a gizmo that turns plastic trash back into oil.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGGabrorRS8

Now clearly, we want to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn. The energy reclaimed form this plastic isn't clean. It still releases carbon. (In fact, in a perverse sort of way, making plastic can be thought of as carbon sequestration.)

But we are stuck with a certain need for oil in the short term, and this machine could provide a much more resource-efficient way of getting it (while reducing our mounting piles of plastic trash) than drilling in the ocean or elsewhere.

Thanks, Isis!