As much as we would love to rid the planet of plastic, the truth is we rely on it for everything from food packaging to smartphones. Besides plastic pollution, the process of making plastic is also expensive and strenuous on the earth. Scientists claim that may all change soon with their ‘revolutionary’ new technology that could reduce global energy costs associated with making plastics by as much as $2bn each year while reducing emissions. Essentially what the scientists have created is a filter with microscopic holes that does what an enormous amount of heat and energy currently does in the chemical process similar to that found in oil refining. The scientists believe the new filter has great potential for commercialization and integration into the wider chemical processing industry.