Researchers turned hard-to-recycle plastic into hydrogen using battery acid. This circular upcycling system tackles multiple problematic waste streams at once, the scientists claim. Scientists have developed a method to turn plastic waste into clean hydrogen using solar power and acid from old car batteries.
The one-pot process transforms hard-to-recycle plastics into valuable industrial chemicals and clean fuel, potentially creating a circular upcycling system that tackles multiple problematic waste streams at once, the researchers say.
The world produced more than 440 million U.S. tons (400 million metric tons) of plastic waste in 2025, but less than 10% of this was actually recycled. The challenge lies in the sheer number of different plastics we use. Some, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, can be easily melted down and remolded, while others require specific chemical processes to break the polymer structure down into its individual chemical building blocks (known as monomers).
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