Plastic waste continues to pile up while we strive to develop better recycling methods. As plastic demand continues to increase, recycling methods that are efficient and cost-effective will become more and more necessary to close the plastic loop and improve circularity.
Most of the 360 million m.t. of plastics produced annually ends up in landfills or water bodies. For the small percentage of plastics that are recycled, mechanical recycling methods are usually the best available route. Chemical recycling, or advanced recycling, is another approach to valorizing plastic waste. While mechanical recycling methods “downgrade” materials, chemical recycling techniques can convert plastic waste into useful fuels and value-added chemicals.
However, plastics have strong carbon bonds that often require severe reaction conditions to break apart. Current chemical recycling methods require energy-intensive and/or costly techniques, complicating scale-up and commercialization. Catalytic routes have lower energy requirements, making the approach more practical and economically feasible...
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