Is the recycling of plastic a long term sustainable option?

The plastic recycling industry claims that since plastic is now so prevalent in daily use it cannot be fully eliminated and therefore we need to find ways to close the loop and bring the plastic back into circulation.

However can plastic be recycled endlessly ? What are the losses in quality when plastic is recycled and how many cycles can it endure until it becomes worthless?

The idea of converting plastic into fuel works on the logic that until human beings are using fossil fuels for energy needs - recycling plastic waste into fuel is ensuring that a fraction of original fossil fuels will be saved by this process. It does not expect to reduce the emissions and pollution issues caused by petroleum based fuels but simply replaces diesel with fuel from recycled plastic waste. In a way it begs to be perceived as the lesser evil.

In the third citizens meeting, Neelesh Inamdar was invited to present the technology of plastic to fuel conversion. In his presentation he openly shared that he expected this technology to become obsolete in ten years or so when other alternatives to plastic had been designed by the industry. In this way he said this was a stop gap arrangement to prevent this plastic waste from ending up in land fills.

While this may be considered as a temporary solution to disposal of plastic waste however it
1. Does not break the petroleum dependency
2. Does not justify the use of precious fossil fuels for single use disposable plastic items such as plastic bag.

The quality of this fuel is comparable to that of diesel and is priced at about Rs 30/- per litre.

However this fuel cannot be used for home cooking or vehicles.

The industry claims that the  process of making this fuel from plastic does not release any hazardous or toxic chemicals into the environment. The gases released during the process are collected and used as fuel for the process itself.