Until recently, taking care of plastic refuse responsibly has been a problem. Much of the refuse is not biorenewable or biodegradable, and much of it ends up in the oceans causing environmental damage. But all of that could thanks to Colorado State University chemists Eugene Chen and Miao Hong.
While currently available bioplastics generally undergo partial thermal recycling, Chen has developed a biopolymer substance called poly(GBL), which can be recycled back to its base monomer form using a heat reaction. Together, Chen and Hong developed a technique to shape the substance into shapes, which could later be used for all of our current plastic needs.
Also, compared to the current most commonly used biodegradable bioplastic–P4HB–Chen’s substance is cheaper to produce, more abundant, and more environmentally-friendly. It’s petroleum-free, is fully recyclable and can even be broken down by living organisms.
This is huge.
In the future, we could have plastic products that can truly be recycled and reused indefinitely, allowing us to produce only a certain amount of waste that is constantly being converted into new objects.
For his efforts, Chen recently received the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. You can read all about his discovery in the recent issue of Nature Chemistry, where he and Hong have published their work.
Source: The Latest News