Julian Brown stood in front of a classic truck with a gas can, and a crowd gathered around him, everyone with a phone in their hand. In fact, he invited them to record this historical moment where he was going to fuel the truck with Plastoline, gasoline made from plastic. Groundbreaking work that would greatly impact the world we live in, but that would call for a lot of change, and some people just aren’t trying to have it.
On July 9, he left a very cryptic message on his Instagram, and then, he was gone. Of course, everyone’s mind went straight to what the government might have done with him. That’s how low we think of our government these days. But others thought more clearly that it might be the gasoline companies themselves who weren’t too happy with his invention. Either way, he was gone, and no one knew where he was.
“If this man dies it’s because the government killed him!!! Plastic being turned into fuel can help the planet immensely and its inhabitants but the government rather watch us suffer and struggle than work with someone tht can make life easier and the planet a better place.” _melrose22
You can’t stop people from going there when something like this happens. It’s happened too many times, and the government has been behind some of these things. Other times, it’s been the corporation itself.
An Invention the World Desperately Needs
Before his disappearance, Brown had claimed to have developed a method to convert plastic waste into fuel. Not a theoretical model. Not a lab-bound prototype. A working solution, he called Plastoline.
According to people close to him, Plastoline could process everything from single-use bags to broken toys and ocean debris, and refine it into a burnable liquid that powers cars, trucks, and even planes.
In other words, the very thing we’ve been throwing away for decades could now power the machines that run the modern world. If real, it would be one of the most disruptive inventions since the internal combustion engine.
Plastic: Our Greatest Curse… or Secret Weapon?
Every year, humanity generates more than 400 million tons of plastic waste. We recycle less than 10%. The rest is buried, burned, or dumped into the environment. Over 11 million metric tons of plastic flow into our oceans annually. If trends continue, that number could nearly triple by 2040. Right now, there are more than 170 trillion plastic particles swirling in our seas.
We’ve turned Earth into a landfill. But if Plastoline works, every bottle, wrapper, and straw becomes a potential barrel of fuel. Suddenly, the mountains of trash become mines of untapped energy. Cleanup becomes profitable. Pollution becomes power. And maybe, just maybe, we get a shot at reversing the damage.
Too Big to Bury
But with great disruption comes danger. The oil and plastic industries are deeply linked. Most plastics are derived from petrochemicals. Fossil fuel companies don’t just pump gas, they manufacture plastic, too. Billions of dollars are tied up in keeping things just the way they are.
If Plastoline takes off, it doesn’t just clean up the environment. It upends the system. No more dependence on drilling. No more plastic bans that barely scratch the surface. And no more pretending that recycling programs are enough. Julian’s invention threatened to rewrite the rules, and those who profit from the old ones might not take that lightly.
Plastoline Appears to Work
The worries lasted weeks. The thoughts about what could have happened to Julian circled the internet again and again. No one had a clue, and Julian wasn’t putting out any more signals that he was okay after his message went viral.
That is until his mom finally put everyone’s minds at ease, “I can confirm Julian is safe but in the best interest of his security I’m not able to provide any more information.” Nia Brown, Julian’s mother, reached out and informed DailyMail.
All of the conspiracy theories can fade away. Plastoline is still safe. The company Julian founded, NatureJab is safe. At least for now.
I’d prefer we cleaned up the oceans and cleared the land, using all that plastic to fuel the cars we drive. That sounds like a win-win to me. But of course, there are billionaires who would lose some money, and they can’t be having that. So if it wasn’t just him being paranoid and Julian’s life was in danger, he’s not out of the woods yet. Even with the eyes of the world on him, they could still find a way to get to him.
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