Recycling Breakthrough Turns One Common Type of Plastic Into Another
5th October 2022
The team started with the most widely produced plastic in the world, namely polyethylene (PE), which accounts for around 29% of the world’s plastic consumption. A catalyst was then used to remove hydrogen from the material and create a reactive location in the chain of molecules, and then another catalyst to split the molecules at this location and cap the exposed ends. A third catalyst then shifts this reactive location along the chain so the process can be repeated. This leaves behind molecules of propylene, which serve as the building blocks for the world’s second most widely used plastic, polypropylene (PP).