The excessive use of plastic together with the low recycling rates have turned this synthetic material into an environmental nightmare. That’s why a team of scientists has created a plastic which can be recycled indefinitely.
The description of the new material, created by researchers from Colorado State University’s Department of Chemistry led by Eugene Chen, is published in the journal Science and has already been patented.
Haritz Sardon of the University of the Basque Country (POLYMAT) and Andrew P. Dove of the University of Birmingham (UK), both experts in polymers, remember that since the first polymer was synthesized in 1907, plastic has not ceased to seduce us because it is cheap, durable, light and practical and, for these same reasons, its production has grown exponentially.
Scientists have created a plastic which can be recycled indefinitely
Technically, Chen’s team’s finding seems to reverse the situation because the properties of the new polymer are not only comparable to those of plastics on the market but also have infinite recyclability.
The new polymer, unlike the plastics generated to date, can be returned to its original molecular state for recycling over and over again, without intensive laboratory procedures but with a simple catalyst and some increase in temperature.
In doing so, Chen and his team have achieved a 100% recyclable plastic and, at the same time, the resulting material has a high molecular weight, thermal stability, and crystallinity. Even more, it is robust enough to withstand the conventional applications in which plastics are used and to establish what Chen himself defines as “a circular life cycle of materials.”
Plastics will continue to be key to meeting society’s demands and meeting such widespread and essential needs as health care, food preservation, and more. Now, this new plastic which can be recycled indefinitely, in order to work for a long-term environmental protection, it must be accompanied by the adequate infrastructure to support the collection, separation, and the recycling of this new polymer.
