New process converts PET plastic into monomer building blocks, which can be recycled into new PET products or upcycled into higher value materials. Harnessing moisture from air, Northwestern ...

It usually takes 450 years for a single piece of plastic to fully decompose, but this company’s cutting edge technology shaves that time down to fifteen minutes. Istok Nahtigal and Nick Spina of ...

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time, but researchers at Northwestern University may have found a new solution. Their newly developed method can break down ...

Researchers have reported a method for breaking down commercial polymers like Plexiglass into monomers, a form more desirable for reuse. This could help alleviate the growing plastic waste stream.

Plastic bottles and bags can be vaporised into chemical building blocks and turned into new plastics with all the properties of virgin material. There are hurdles still to overcome, but the new ...

Every year, the world generates hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic waste, and the vast majority of it ends up in places where it is not useful. A landmark 2025 study published in Nature ...

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Many people are familiar with the haunting images of wildlife—including sea turtles, dolphins and seals—tangled in abandoned fishing nets. The main issue behind Nylon-6, the plastic inside these nets, ...

Bio-based plastics often end up in recycling streams because they look and feel like conventional plastic, but the contamination of these compostable products makes it much harder to generate ...

Plastic overproduction, overuse, and improper disposal have created a massive environmental problem, with plastics clogging waterways, polluting natural habitats, and threatening multiple species with ...

Bio-based plastics such as polylactic acid (PLA) were invented to help solve the plastic waste crisis, but they often end up making waste management more challenging. Because these materials look and ...