The world is drowning in plastic.
That equals over 400kg of plastic waste for every one of the 7.6 billion people on the planet.
One reason for this is that many plastics arenot recyclablein our current system.
And even those that are recyclable still go to landfill eventually.
Plastics cannot be recycled infinitely, at least not using traditional techniques.
But there is hope in a different form of recycling known as chemical recycling.
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All this needs to be done in aproductive, economic,large-scaleand carbon-neutral way.
The eventual solution should create less harm than the problem it is trying to solve.
Conventional recycling just breaks plastic into small pellets.
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In the most simple terms, breaking chemical bonds is all a matter of energy.
One example of a catalyst is the bang out of biological molecule known as an enzyme.
These occur in living organisms and play a vital part in processes in the body such as digestion.
There are up to50 known plastivoremicro-organisms that candigest plasticbecause they contain enzymes that help break it down.
However, with more research they might be used commercially in the future.
Other catalysts can work quite quickly.
New techniques
There is a global effort in this growing field to develop new techniques.
Scientists have also developed a way torepeatedly recycle bioplasticsinstead of leaving them to slowly biodegrade and release carbon dioxide.
Chemical recycling could compliment mechanical recycling, especially for problem materials in physical recycling such asthin filmsand microplastics.
The grinders cant work on thin films, let alonemicroplastic materialsthat are hundreds of times smaller.
Many of these techniques have been demonstrated in the laboratory and there are severalcompaniesnow doing this at acommercial level.
These processes take time, expertiseand money.
