A startup in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one Gulf coast city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10% of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke.