Drinking and driving is a no-no in the United States for everyone. Well, for everyone except cars.
A company in Virginia is experimenting with boozy caffeinated drinks, including Four Loko, as a means to extract fuel for cars, the Associated Press reports. MXI Environmental Services is recycling it into pure ethanol which will later be blended into gasoline.
Last Novmenber, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission began an effort to remove drinks mixed with cafeeine and alcohol from stores, calling it an “unsafe additive”. Public debate over the drink and its risks has pushed wholesalers to find alternative uses for the beverage, with most drinks being transported from warehouses to waste management companies for disposal.
“We’re equipped to process four truckloads a day, and we’re at full capacity. We’re at full capacity,” Brian Potter, a VP for MXI Environmental Services, told the Associated Press. “There are about 30 different products involved, and we’ve only seen a couple of them at this point. It could go on for several months.”
Potter’s company is collecting over 200,000 cases of the drinks for recycling.