IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v603y2022i7903d10.1038_s41586-021-04350-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers

Author

Listed:
  • Coralie Jehanno

    (University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
    POLYKEY)

  • Jill W. Alty

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Martijn Roosen

    (Ghent University)

  • Steven Meester

    (Ghent University)

  • Andrew P. Dove

    (University of Birmingham)

  • Eugene Y.-X. Chen

    (Colorado State University)

  • Frank A. Leibfarth

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Haritz Sardon

    (University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU)

Abstract

The vast majority of commodity plastics do not degrade and therefore they permanently pollute the environment. At present, less than 20% of post-consumer plastic waste in developed countries is recycled, predominately for energy recovery or repurposing as lower-value materials by mechanical recycling. Chemical recycling offers an opportunity to revert plastics back to monomers for repolymerization to virgin materials without altering the properties of the material or the economic value of the polymer. For plastic waste that is either cost prohibitive or infeasible to mechanically or chemically recycle, the nascent field of chemical upcycling promises to use chemical or engineering approaches to place plastic waste at the beginning of a new value chain. Here state-of-the-art methods are highlighted for upcycling plastic waste into value-added performance materials, fine chemicals and specialty polymers. By identifying common conceptual approaches, we critically discuss how the advantages and challenges of each approach contribute to the goal of realizing a sustainable plastics economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Coralie Jehanno & Jill W. Alty & Martijn Roosen & Steven Meester & Andrew P. Dove & Eugene Y.-X. Chen & Frank A. Leibfarth & Haritz Sardon, 2022. "Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers," Nature, Nature, vol. 603(7903), pages 803-814, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:603:y:2022:i:7903:d:10.1038_s41586-021-04350-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04350-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04350-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-021-04350-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jomin Thomas & Renuka Subhash Patil & Mahesh Patil & Jacob John, 2023. "Addressing the Sustainability Conundrums and Challenges within the Polymer Value Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Xun Zhang & Wenqi Guo & Chengjian Zhang & Xinghong Zhang, 2023. "A recyclable polyester library from reversible alternating copolymerization of aldehyde and cyclic anhydride," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Yu Yang & Jian Min & Ting Xue & Pengcheng Jiang & Xin Liu & Rouming Peng & Jian-Wen Huang & Yingying Qu & Xian Li & Ning Ma & Fang-Chang Tsai & Longhai Dai & Qi Zhang & Yingle Liu & Chun-Chi Chen & Re, 2023. "Complete bio-degradation of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) via engineered cutinases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Jun Qi & Yadong Du & Qi Yang & Na Jiang & Jiachun Li & Yi Ma & Yangjun Ma & Xin Zhao & Jieshan Qiu, 2023. "Energy-saving and product-oriented hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis enabled by electrochemistry pairing and product engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Baolong Qiu & Mengjie Liu & Xin Qu & Fengying Zhou & Hongwei Xie & Dihua Wang & Lawrence Yoon Suk Lee & Huayi Yin, 2024. "Waste plastics upcycled for high-efficiency H2O2 production and lithium recovery via Ni-Co/carbon nanotubes composites," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Wei Zeng & Yanfei Zhao & Fengtao Zhang & Rongxiang Li & Minhao Tang & Xiaoqian Chang & Ying Wang & Fengtian Wu & Buxing Han & Zhimin Liu, 2024. "A general strategy for recycling polyester wastes into carboxylic acids and hydrocarbons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Yuanjia Zhang & Xueru Chen & Leilei Cheng & Jing Gu & Yulin Xu, 2023. "Conversion of Polyethylene to High-Yield Fuel Oil at Low Temperatures and Atmospheric Initial Pressure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Xun Zhang & Ximin Feng & Wenqi Guo & Chengjian Zhang & Xinghong Zhang, 2024. "Chemically recyclable polyvinyl chloride-like plastics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    9. Chen, Zhijie & Wei, Wei & Chen, Xueming & Liu, Yiwen & Shen, Yansong & Ni, Bing-Jie, 2024. "Upcycling of plastic wastes for hydrogen production: Advances and perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    10. Uwe Lahl & Barbara Zeschmar-Lahl, 2024. "More than 30 Years of PVC Recycling in Europe—A Critical Inventory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-24, May.
    11. Katarzyna Świderek & Susana Velasco-Lozano & Miquel À. Galmés & Ion Olazabal & Haritz Sardon & Fernando López-Gallego & Vicent Moliner, 2023. "Mechanistic studies of a lipase unveil effect of pH on hydrolysis products of small PET modules," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Xing-Wang Han & Xun Zhang & Youyun Zhou & Aizezi Maimaitiming & Xiu-Li Sun & Yanshan Gao & Peizhi Li & Boyu Zhu & Eugene Y.-X. Chen & Xiaokang Kuang & Yong Tang, 2024. "Circular olefin copolymers made de novo from ethylene and α-olefins," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Kai Ma & Hai-Yan An & Jiyun Nam & Liam T. Reilly & Yi-Lin Zhang & Eugene Y.-X. Chen & Tie-Qi Xu, 2024. "Fully recyclable and tough thermoplastic elastomers from simple bio-sourced δ-valerolactones," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Ye Sha & Xiaofan Chen & Wei Sun & Junfeng Zhou & Yucheng He & Enhua Xu & Zhenyang Luo & Yonghong Zhou & Puyou Jia, 2024. "Biorenewable and circular polyolefin thermoplastic elastomers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    15. Theerayut Phengsaart & Pongsiri Julapong & Chaiwat Manositchaikul & Palot Srichonphaisarn & Monthicha Rawangphai & Onchanok Juntarasakul & Kosei Aikawa & Sanghee Jeon & Ilhwan Park & Carlito Baltazar , 2023. "Recent Studies and Technologies in the Separation of Polyvinyl Chloride for Resources Recycling: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.
    16. Laura Wimberger & Gervase Ng & Cyrille Boyer, 2024. "Light-driven polymer recycling to monomers and small molecules," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Katelyn M. Derr & Rhett C. Smith, 2024. "Thiocracking of Multi-Materials: High-Strength Composites from Post-Consumer Food Packaging Jars," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-18, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:603:y:2022:i:7903:d:10.1038_s41586-021-04350-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.