‘A new type of plastic may be the first that is infinitely recyclable’
20 August 2020
14:53
A new type of plastic that can be easily broken down into its chemical building blocks and reassembled into high-quality products could reduce the amount of plastic waste ending up in landfill.
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The material, called PBTL, is made by joining together chemical building blocks called bicyclic thiolactones. PBTL has excellent strength, toughness and stability, says Chen, meaning it could potentially be used to make plastic packaging, sports equipment, car parts, construction materials and other products.
The researchers found that PBTL can be easily recycled by heating it at 100°C in the presence of a chemical catalyst for 24 hours. This breaks the plastic cleanly into its original building blocks, which can then be reassembled into new high-quality PBTL.
