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Tough Vehicle and Construction Plastics Can Now Be Recycled with Low-Waste Method
Confirmed
In Short: A new recycling technique developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Sandia National Laboratories could revolutionize the recycling of durable plastics.
The team led by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Sandia National Laboratories has developed a simple method for breaking down durable plastics that currently have no practical recycling method. According to reports, the material is used in products ranging from vehicle bumpers and construction equipment to chemical storage tanks. In a process that looks like a sugar lump dissolving in water, the plastic deconstructs and dissolves in the solution, leaving behind a powder that can be reused in new plastics.
National Science Foundation's investments in materials research have yielded countless breakthroughs, including advanced materials, smart electronics, and sustainable plastics. From prehistoric stone tools to modern-day silicon semiconductors, materials have served as critical building blocks for the technologies that people depend on every day. NSF invests in the discovery of new materials and processing methods that can unlock innovations across a wide range of sectors, such as medicine, agriculture, electronics, manufacturing, energy, and national security.
What's confirmed
- The team led by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Sandia National Laboratories has developed a simple method for breaking down durable plastics that currently have no practical recycling method. According to reports, the material is used in products ranging from vehicle bumpers and construction equipment to chemical storage tanks. In a process that looks like a sugar lump dissolving in water, the plastic deconstructs and dissolves in the solution, leaving behind a powder that can be reused in new plastics.
- National Science Foundation's investments in materials research have yielded countless breakthroughs, including advanced materials, smart electronics, and sustainable plastics. From prehistoric stone tools to modern-day silicon semiconductors, materials have served as critical building blocks for the technologies that people depend on every day. NSF invests in the discovery of new materials and processing methods that can unlock innovations across a wide range of sectors, such as medicine, agriculture, electronics, manufacturing, energy, and national security.
What's still developing
- “Before now, people might have avoided using these materials, despite their strength, durability and lightness, because they didn’t have a good way to recycle them,” said Zak Page, a UT associate professor of chemistry and corresponding author on the paper.
- “This type of material has been around a long time, and the wisdom was that it was just too thermodynamically stable for this reaction to go the other way,” Page said.
- The method could help create plastic products with the best of both worlds by combining durability with an eco-friendly life cycle.
- A new recycling technique could help tackle a major challenge: breaking down some of the toughest plastics without generating large amounts of waste.
- From their liquid crystal displays to their lithium batteries, NSF-supported research was essential to the creation of many materials found in smartphones.
- Materials science and engineering explores the basic structure, properties and behavior of materials — down to the molecular, atomic and even subatomic levels — to create goods that benefit society.
- Researchers in this field study a broad array of materials, ranging from the familiar, like silicon, glass, concrete, metals and plastics, to the exotic, like biomaterials and wholly new "designer materials" that are configured one atomic layer at a time.
- NSF's decades of sustained investments have ensured the continual advance of materials research.