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The Future of Plastics Recycling: Chemical Advances Are Increasing The Proportion of Polymer Waste That Can Be Recycled
The Future of Plastics Recycling: Chemical Advances Are Increasing The Proportion of Polymer Waste That Can Be Recycled
cies continue to improve and the associated ernment. University-industry partnerships POLYMER CHEMISTRY
monomers can be produced economically. can be very effective at producing basic
Fundamental research in polymerization
catalysis has been essential in the search for
highly effective systems that can tolerate
research that is couched in the economic
realities of the polymer marketplace.
For polymers from renewable resources
The future
impurities, exhibit large turnover numbers,
and allow for controlled polymerizations.
to penetrate the marketplace, they must
outcompete traditional materials in both of plastics
The renaissance in olefin polymerization
triggered by the advent of metallocene
catalysts is today being relived with new
price and performance. But as the funda-
mental research in the conversion of bio-
mass to polymer precursors continues to
recycling
discrete metal acetates, carbonates, and
alkoxides and an array of organocatalysts in
evolve, the resultant technologies will be-
come more and more practical. Similarly,
Chemical advances are
the biobased polymer world. as the basic research on converting these increasing the proportion
OUTLOOK
compounds into polymers with exceptional
property, processing, and performance
of polymer waste that can
Biobased polymers can frame the future profiles continues to be established, the be recycled
of plastics, provided that scientists con- resultant materials will be increasingly
tinue to develop efficient, often catalytic, competitive. If the economic and environ- By Jeannette M. Garcia1 and
conversion of biomass to useful polymer mental costs of extracting fossil resources Megan L. Robertson2
ingredients; generate new and established and converting them into plastics continue
The University of Minnesota also has equity and royalty interests recycling all global plastic solid waste is
in Valerian Materials. These interests have been reviewed and
managed by the University of Minnesota in accordance with its
Styrene conflict of interest policies. 1
IBM Almaden Research Center, Chemistry and Materials, 650
Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120, USA. 2University of Houston,
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
Under development In use 10.1126/science.aao6711 Houston, TX 77204, USA. Email: jmgarcia@us.ibm.com
Published by AAAS
equivalent to 3.5 billion barrels of oil, worth products. However, depolymerization to likely customized, compatibilizers for diverse
approximately $176 billion dollars (3). monomers will require the development of plastic mixtures of varied compositions, ac-
catalysts that are selective and efficient yet counting for polymer degradation during
CURRENT RECYCLING APPROACHES preserve the functional groups in monomers processing before recycling (9), and applying
Mechanical recycling is the only widely ad- while meeting requisite cost and energy highly effective reactive compatibilization
opted technology for large-scale treatment metrics. Jia et al. recently reported the low- approaches to plastic solid waste (10).
of plastic solid waste. The main steps are temperature (~150°C) depolymerization of All current recycling technologies focus on
the removal of organic residue through polyethylene through cascade reactions with thermoplastics and take advantage of their
washing, followed by shredding, melting, a cocatalyst system (5). Although they did not processability in the high-temperature melt
and remolding of the polymer, which is of- achieve complete depolymerization to mono- state. Cross-linked polymers, found in ther-
ten blended with virgin plastic of the same mer, the work represents a promising proof mosets and elastomers, are not suited to these
type to produce a material with suitable of concept that can be further developed. traditional mechanical recycling processes
properties for manufacturing. Researchers are also working on ap- (although they can be ground into particu-
There are limitations to mechanical re- proaches that allow direct processing of lates or powders for limited applications).
cycling technologies because each type of commingled plastic waste. Current technolo- New developments that overcome these lim-
plastic responds differently to the process gies for recycling plastics mainly rely on ac- itations include polymers with cross-links
depending on its chemical makeup, me- cess to pure waste polymer feedstocks, which that reverse (11) or exchange (12) at elevated
chanical behavior, and thermal properties. require costly and time-intensive sorting of temperatures, which allow for reworking
Temperature-sensitive plastics, composites, municipal solid waste. The greatest chal- of the materials before reuse. Alternatively,
and plastics that do not flow at elevated lenge in recycling commingled plastic waste polymers that can undergo chemical (13, 14),
velopment, minimizing the need for sorting waste would allow for more widespread To increase the recycling rate of plastics,
through compatibilizer design, and expand- recycling without presorting. For example, new low-energy catalysts for chemical recy-
ing recycling beyond thermoplastics. Eagan et al. recently developed a highly ef- cling must be designed that target polymers
Chemical recycling with thermolysis of- fective copolymer for blending polyethylene by type. In addition, decontamination tech-
fers a recycling strategy through decomposi- and polypropylene (7, 8). Ongoing areas of niques for the rapid cleaning of spent plastic
tion of a polymer to lower-molecular-weight research include developing effective, and and more efficient sorting in recycling plants
A
tion. Of similar importance is the ability to round 50 years ago, interest arose gen, sunlight, and temperature, making
recycle composites containing more than in making plastics that can degrade it extremely difficult if not impossible to
one type of material (typically polymers, in the environment (1). Since then, control and ensure the complete degrada-
metals, or ceramics). Low-energy separations a stream of research efforts has tion of even potentially degradable plastic
of mixed materials such as composites and chased the dream of environmen- materials. Controlled conditions can be
multilayer packaging will require further tally friendly materials that disap- created in commercial composting plants,
development; there is currently no effective pear without leaving behind fragments or allowing plastics classified as compostable
way to achieve such separation mechanically. harmful products. Such environmentally to be successfully degraded through the
Published by AAAS
The future of plastics recycling
Jeannette M. Garcia and Megan L. Robertson
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