The new process is very energy-efficient and can be easily powered by renewable energy in the future, unlike other heat-driven recycling processes like pyrolysis.
This innovation overcomes the current challenges in recycling plastics such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS), which are typically incinerated or discarded in landfills. Globally, only nine per cent of plastics are recycled, and plastic pollution is growing at an alarming rate.
The biggest challenge of recycling these plastics is their inert carbon-carbon bonds, which are very stable and thus require a significant amount of energy to break. This bond is also the reason why these plastics are resistant to many chemicals and have relatively high melting points.
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