Maybe we can use this and stop pulling new petroleum into the plastics cycle for most products. That would let us leave more of it in the ground. And this also lets us prevent the gases from the food, much of it generated using petroleum products, from entering the atmosphere, effectively sequestering carbon into the products.

If all the system really needs is heat and mechanical energy we can generate that in spades from sunlight. In fact, the sun is far more efficient at directly heating things up than it is at being turned into electricity. So we could actually have a recycling plant that for certain kinds of materials is far greener than throwing the materials away.

First we need to demonstrate that the process works, and that we can spend the energy to make something useful. Then we figure out if we can source the energy from somewhere green.

The only real questions I have are what are the chemical inputs, and where do they come from? And can those chemical inputs be generated directly using heat or do they require electricity?

It's interesting because it suggests that we can build a recycling machine that takes garbage and heat and outputs usable materials.