Plastics are not completely recyclable, at least not using conventional techniques. Before they end up on the earth, the ocean, or an incinerator, most are granted only one new lease of life. But there is hope for another method of recycling, called chemical recycling.
FREMONT, CA: Usually, conventional physical or mechanical recycling grinds down plastic into smaller pieces, which are then blended and molded together to produce plastic items of lower grade. On the other hand, chemical recycling breaks the plastic down to the molecular level, making "platform molecules" available that can then be used to produce other products. It is still at a nascent stage, but it might open up a whole range of opportunities in theory.
Plastics are a broad category of materials known as polymers, which are composed primarily of carbon and hydrogen from small monomer building block molecules. In chemically recycling plastic, the challenge is to find the correct techniques for breaking down and reconstituting the material into various end products while reducing waste.
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It is important to do all of this in a sustainable, economical, large-scale, and carbon-neutral manner. The final solution can do less damage than the issue it is seeking to fix.
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Breaking chemical bonds is just a matter of energy in the simplest of words. Plastics are mainly very stable materials, so they typically require a large amount of energy to break them down, usually in the form of heat to cause a process called pyrolysis. Using the right catalyst, a substance that starts the chemical reaction from a particular position in the polymer chain, you will have more accurate control over the breakdown.
There is a global initiative to develop new techniques in this growing sector. Chemical recycling could complement mechanical recycling, especially for problem materials such as thin films and microplastics in physical recycling. Because of their small size and power, these get caught in the grinding machinery, causing the whole mechanism to get stuck, slow down or even stop altogether and require cleaning. The grinders can't work on thin films, let alone microplastic materials, which are hundreds of times smaller.
Many of these methods have been tested in the laboratory, and this is now being done at a commercial level by several businesses. It takes time, experience, and capital for these procedures. But this is a growing area of opportunity for investors to build a circular carbon economy through the use of chemical processing of plastics.
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