On the Wings of Waste: British pilot touches down after barnstorming flight on post-consumer plastic fuel

An aviator has proved a world first by using plastic fuel to fly the 500 miles from Sydney to Melbourne.

Jeremy Rowsell is a pilot and environmental campaigner. He developed a unique fuel blend made up from 10 per cent post-consumer plastic from the ocean and landfill sites, to fly his Vans RV9A 2-seater plane in a pioneering journey, endorsed by Sir David Attenborough.  

Rowsell, who was born in Britain, took off from Illawarra Airport, near Wollongong in New South Wales, to fly 15 hours straight to Melbourne on his custom fuel mix, which was reprocessed by London based Plastic Energy.

He was inspired by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the first man to fly across the vast interior of Australia, and to fly from America to Australia in 1928. He said: “After years of preparation and many ups and downs, we’ve finally shown that the eight million tonnes of plastic dumped into the oceans each year can be put to good use - we blended 10 per cent of fuel manufactured by Plastic Energy with conventional fuel and the flight was a dream.”

Rowsell and his On Wings of Waste team are now looking for support from investors to build a recycling plant in Australia, to showcase the refining technology and apply it to the aviation industry.