Researchers have discovered a new way to dramatically increase the amount of plastic waste that can be recycled.
Each year, most of the 150 million tons of plastic produced in the world is eventually being landfilled, oceans and elsewhere, and in the United States less than 9% of the plastic is recycled and in Europe the share rises to about 30% %.
'It's a $ 176 billion worth of problems,' scientists said, 'The potential for energy savings can be achieved by recycling all plastic solid waste around the world.' "A study published this week in Science introduced a new Method, using this method can significantly improve the number of plastic solid waste successfully recovered.
This means finding ways to recycle existing plastics more efficiently while developing recyclable plastics.The scope of these approaches can include the recovery of different types of plastics together in a single waste cycle avoiding expensive and time-consuming sorting processes, As well as the more energy-efficient way to break down the plastic.
Recent research indicates that the direction of chemical recovery methods is to reduce the energy requirements, the compatibility of mixed plastic waste, the need to avoid sorting, and to extend the recovery technology to traditionally nonrenewable polymers. "This article was written by Chemistry And Megan L. Robertson, an associate professor of molecular engineering, and Jeannette M. Garcia, a polymer chemist at the IBM Almaden Research Center.
Improving the recycling of existing plastics is a key priority, Robertson said: "The slow pace of new materials entering the market is the biggest impact of developing more effective ways of recycling today's mass-produced plastics.On the other hand, research Can pave the way for the production of materials that are easier to recycle in the future. "One example is the category called Thermosetting Polymers
The polymer, which can not be melted and reused for recycling, has come to the fore. Robertson's lab has developed biorenewable components for thermosets that use hydrocarbon oils made from vegetable oils or other plant materials Polymers replace these materials, which opens up new possibilities for the recovery of new materials, such as composting or chemical recycling of materials, which is a huge leap forward.
This view is part of a series of articles published in Science, the purpose of which is to explore issues related to the polymer's environmental impact, including its sources (oil and biological resources), progress on recycling, and bioequivalence Degradation of polymers.
Robertson and Garcia pointed out three key issues:
1. Plastics must be reclaimed after classification, which adds to the effort and expense.Plastics, or polymers, are composed of macromolecules, so most of the similar molecular materials do not mix when heated, unlike oils and water Interactions are similar and the focus of the research is to find substances that promote different types of plastics, namely compatibilizers that can be recycled together to find a compatible compatibilizer for all polymers, but Robertson Said the current technology requires a tailor-made method for every plastic compound.
Chemical recovery involves the use of catalysts to break down plastics to get small molecule products, the researchers said: 'High energy costs hinder this process, and research and development of more efficient catalysts are under way.
2. The majority of plastics currently recycled are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene (the most productive plastics), which is a component of most water bottle manufacturing. Plastics other than PET and polyethylene are an ongoing area of research.
More challenging is the development of polymers that can be recycled without melting at high temperatures, such as thermosets and elastomers (rubber materials) .The researchers say the key to any potential solution is the material's performance Affected to make it easier to recycle.Multiple use and recycling of plastics without loss of performance is an open challenge to research.
The researchers wrote: 'There are many potential social advantages to increasing plastic recycling beyond current levels, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding the accumulation of waste in the environment, reducing reliance on limited oil resources, and recycling of plastic solid waste Economic Value. '
They say some startups have expanded their chemical recycling of waste styrofoam or developed a sorting process that separates materials to purify the material, they write, and the study and other research 'hope in the near future that plastic The recovery rate will be much higher than today.