It would be ideal if the reality of recycling plastic matched the recycling symbol we are all familiar with. But the thing is that plastic frequently uses a wide variety of chemicals which make them tough to transform into a desirable end product – that’s one of the reasons why only 10 percent of the plastic in the US gets recycled. In an attempt to find a solution to this problem, researchers have recently created a plastic with a special chemical bond that helps it separate out from those additives, turning it back into a pure, valuable product that can be reused over again. To make the new material, scientists tweaked a glass-like plastic, called vitrimer, by adding molecules that change the chemical bonds holding it together. These new bonds require less energy to break than those in traditional plastics. As a result, the new plastic can be broken down into its constituent parts using just a solution of water and a strong acid at room temperature. Because the new plastic’s byproducts are more valuable—and because recycling plants likely wouldn’t need a total overhaul to process it, this sustainable plastic could one day shift the global economics of plastic recycling.
This new type of plastic could be the answer to the recycling problem
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