Japanese inventor, Akinori Ito, has created a household appliance which converts plastic bags into fuel for heat generators and some stoves.

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Let’s talk numbers. On average, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which are produced with 12 million barrels of oil. When you think about the fact that one plastic bag takes 1,000 years to degrade, that’s a lot of waste lying around in landfills or poured into the ocean. What’s worse is that these plastic bags don’t even break down completely. They get polluted by the sunlight and turn into microplastics that absorb toxins, polluting the environment.

While the stats look worrisome, there are many, and usually ingenious, ways to properly recycle plastic bags. One smart solution belongs to a Japanese inventor, Akinori Ito has created a household appliance that converts plastic bags into fuel. The resulting fuel can be used for various applications such as the generation of heat.

Ito realized that since plastic bags are created from oil, they can be converted back into their original form. The crude oil produced can be used to heat generators and some stoves. It can serve as an alternative to gasoline when refined and can even be used to power cars, boats, or motorbikes.