r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Feb 20 '21

Chemistry Chemists developed two sustainable plastic alternatives to polyethylene, derived from plants, that can be recycled with a recovery rate of more than 96%, as low-waste, environmentally friendly replacements to conventional fossil fuel-based plastics. (Nature, 17 Feb)

https://academictimes.com/new-plant-based-plastics-can-be-chemically-recycled-with-near-perfect-efficiency/
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u/matthiass360 Feb 20 '21

Plastics are polymers, which means they are molecules which are built up of many smaller molecules to form long chains. These long chains are very strong and difficult to break down, which means the material usually can't be recycled efficiently. In this paper, a polymer is described that has certain "break points" every few molecules into the chain. At these points, the long chains can be broken and the molecules can be reshaped to form a new product, aka recycling.

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '21

Ooh that's so cool. Tysm for the explanation <3

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u/Sabot15 Feb 20 '21

Also, while I can't speak for the biorefining processes used here, the starting point for this chemistry is derived from oleic acid (soap) which is cheap and easily obtained. It doesn't have to come from million year old oil like most of our plastics.

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u/Creshal Feb 21 '21

OTOH it's not exactly a waste product we have millions of tons of just lying around waiting to be used. We'd have to intensify vegetable oil production significantly to meet demand, and that's already causing plenty of environmental problems as is due to illegal palm oil farming etc.