Incredible plastic that can be recycled over and over again branded ‘holy grail’ breakthrough
Sir David Attenborough will be chuffed...
A NEXT-GEN plastic that can be recycled over and over again into new materials has been branded a "holy grail" breakthrough.
The incredible new material could revolutionise recycling – and stop plastics from clogging up our oceans and landfills.
Plastic is one of the most popular production materials in the world, largely because it's light, sturdy and cheap to produce.
But once plastic is no longer needed, it becomes difficult to dispose of.
Even very recyclable plastics can only be recycled clad at a rate of 20% to 30% due to the materials contained within – with the rest ending up landfills or elsewhere.
Now a team of scientists have created a new recyclable plastic that, they claim, can be disassembled into parts at the molecular level.
These parts can then be reassembled into a different shape, texture and colour "again and again without loss of performance or quality".
The material is named polydiketoenamine, or PDK for short – and was first reported in the Nature Chemistry journal.
"Most plastics were never made to be recycled," Peter Christensen, postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry.
"But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that ties recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective."
All plastics are made up of large molecules called polymers.
These polymers are made up of repeating compounds called monomers.
To make plastics useful, manufacturers are additional chemicals that bind to the monomers.
These chemicals are difficult to remove, and can often be retained during the recycling process – which means it can't be re-used for other products.
"Circular plastics and plastics upcycling are grand challenges," said Berkeley scientist Brett Helms, who led the research.
"We've already seen the impact of plastic waste leaking into our aquatic ecosystems.
"And this trend is likely to be exacerbated by the increasing amounts of plastics being manufactured, and the downstream pressure it places on our municipal recycling infrastructure."
Unlike normal plastics, PDK has monomers that can be recovered and freed from additives – just by dunking the material in a highly acidic solution.
The acid helps break the bonds between the monomers and chemical additives.
"We're interested in the chemistry that redirects plastic lifecycles from liner to circular," Helms explains.
"We see an opportunity to make a difference for where there are no recycling options."
The researchers now hope that their new recyclable plastic will be used as an alternative to non-recyclable plastics in use today.
The plan is to develop PDK plastics with lots of different properties for manufacturing.
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Apple recently vowed to "one day" use recycled metals to make all of its products.
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And the world's first ocean plastic-cleaning machine will gobble up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Are you good at recycling? Let us know in the comments!
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