Leftover Gift Wrap Could be Fuel of the Future
Imperial College London researchers, Richard Murphy and Lei Wang, calculated that the estimated 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometers (20,500 acres) of wrapping paper thrown away by UK residents during the Christmas season could create 5-12 million liters (1.3-3.2 million gallons) of ethanol biofuel. With that much fuel, one of London’s iconic double-decker buses could travel 18 million kilometers (11 million miles), said the researchers in a press release. That’s enough to circle the Earth nearly 450 times, or take 23 round-trips to the Moon. “If one card is assumed to weigh 20g and one square meter of wrapping paper is 10g, then around 38,300 tonnes [42,219 tons] of extra paper waste will be generated at Christmas time,” said Murphy in a press release. “Our research shows that it would be feasible to build waste paper-to-biofuel processing plants that give energy back as transport fuel.” (DiscoveryNews.com)
-
renlee38xxj likes this
-
goodmorningnews posted this
