Waste plastic products should not be treated as threats to our environment. A proper system to recycle these products and efforts at extracting fuel from them may turn these waste products into invaluable assets, said Amarjyoti Kashyap president of the non-Government organisation (NGO) Environ. This is very significant in these days of growing threats of scarcity and rising price of fossil fuel. Besides, there is also the angle of environment pollution, which can be tackled better with the use of plastic fuel and application of a safe technology to extract fuel from plastic. The sulphur content in plastic fuel is less and this will reduce the problem of emission-related air pollution, Kashyap said. Kashyap, also a teacher of Environmental Science in the city's Lalit Chandra Bharali College, said that using the fuel from such waste plastic products motorcycles were also plied. The safe technology to extract fuel from waste plastic products has been developed by Prof Alaka Umesh Jadgaokar of GH Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur. Prior to her, the Ozmotec Company of Japan developed the technology for extraction of fuel from waste plastic items. But that technology has proved to be costlier, while Prof Jadgaokar's technology is cheaper. Kashyap said, adding, Environ has developed a technology, which is cheaper to Prof Jadgaokar's. Plastic Energy, a United States of America- based company, also tried to develop such a technology earlier. But due to the emission of poisonous gases during the extraction process, that bid was averted. The Adam Oil Industry University of Iran has also been making headway in developing a safe technology for fuel extraction from waste plastic items. Plastic is prepared from petroleum products through polymerisation process and through random depolymerisation process fuel is extracted from plastic items using a specially developed reactor. Up to one litre of fuel can be extracted from one kilogram of plastic products. Fuel from the plastic products of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terapthelete (PET), polyvinyl-chloride (PVC), polycarbonate etc types can also be extracted, he said. The present problem faced from the use of the plastic products is the result of the failure of our system to absorb these items for other uses. Now with the technology for extraction of fuel from such products becoming available, the only thing our society needs to ensure is their systematic collection and use for the purpose, Kashyap said. The Environ will launch a campaign to make the people aware of the need of systematic disposal of such waste products, Kashyap said.