Currently, people in the UK are recycling nearly 45 percent of their plastic waste, and that number is expected to rise in the following years. However, one of the problems with current plastic recycling methods is that you end up with a lower-quality plastic with worse properties than the original.
This means that plastic drinks bottles cannot simply be recycled into new drink bottles continuously, but instead are used for other lower-grade products such as water pipes, park benches, and traffic cones.
Now, scientists from the University of Bath have developed a way to recycle plastic hundreds of times without losing the quality of the material. The novel recycling method involves converting plastics back into their constituent chemical molecules so that they can be used to make new plastics of the same quality as the original.
The researchers recycled plant-based PLA, which is made from starch or crop waste instead of petrochemicals and is used in “biodegradable” food packaging and disposable cutlery and cups. The team has also started trialing a similar process for recycling PET, which is used for drinks bottles.
As the idea of transitioning to a circular economic model is steadily gaining momentum, we hope to see more breakthroughs of the like in the near future.
