'This is a problem worth a total of 176 billion dollars.' Scientists say 'By recycling all of the world's plastic Solid waste, a potential goal for saving energy. "A study published this week in Science presented a new method that dramatically increases the amount of plastic solid waste that can be recovered successfully.
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 plastic is recycled and in Europe the share rises to about 30% %.
Researchers have discovered a new way to dramatically increase the amount of plastic waste that can be recycled, which means finding ways to more effectively recycle existing plastics while developing recyclable plastics, which can range from one Waste recycling recycles different types of plastics together, avoiding expensive and time-consuming sorting processes and breaking down plastics in a more energy-efficient way.
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 processes. Recycling technology is extended to 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 benefits beyond improving plastics recycling beyond current levels, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing waste from accumulating in the environment, reducing reliance on limited oil resources, and recycling of plastic solid waste Economic Value. '
They say some startups are targeting waste Polystyrene 'S chemical recovery methods have expanded or developed the sorting process to separate materials to achieve the purpose of purifying the materials they write.They and other studies hope that the plastic recovery rate will be much higher than it is today in the near future.