• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Engineering Designer Magazine

Engineering Designer

  • Home
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Sustainability
  • Materials
  • Medical
  • Construction
  • Advertise
  • iED
You are here: Home / Materials / US scientists develop new method to recycle single-use plastic

US scientists develop new method to recycle single-use plastic

December 29, 2022 by Geordie Torr

Scientists from Cornell University and the US Department of Energy’s Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics at the Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new method for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE).

Advertisement

Using a novel catalytic approach, the s converted post-consumer HDPE plastic into a fully recyclable and potentially biodegradable material with the same mechanical and thermal properties of the starting single-use plastic.

HDPE is ubiquitous in single-use applications because it’s strong, flexible, long-lasting and inexpensive. However, the ways in which we produce and dispose of HDPE pose serious threats to our own health and that of our planet.

Advertisement

Many HDPE products are produced from fossil fuels and most post-consumer HDPE is either incinerated, dumped in landfills or lost in the environment. When it’s recycled using current methods, the quality of the material degrades.

This new approach could reduce the carbon emissions and pollution associated with HDPE by using waste plastic as untapped feedstock and transforming it into a new material that can be recycled repeatedly without loss of quality.

Current HDPE recycling approaches yield materials with inferior properties. The team’s alternative approach uses a series of catalysts to cleave the polymer chains into shorter pieces that contain reactive groups at the ends. The smaller pieces can then be put back together to form new products of equal value. The end groups have the added benefit of making the new plastic easier to decompose, both in the lab and in nature.

The research has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Filed Under: Materials, Sustainability

Advertisement

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE And get a FREE Magazine

Want a FREE magazine each and every month jam-packed with the latest engineering and design news, views and features?

ED Update Magazine

Simply let us know where to send it by entering your name and email below. Immediate access.

Trending

New wearable ultrasound device can monitor heart function on the go

Asthma-busting backpack wins kids’ design competition

New study suggests that eggshells and lentils could be used in car interiors by 2030

New carbon capture technology turns CO2 into methanol cheaply

MARVEL robot can climb walls and walk on ceilings

Tiny robots inspiored by click beetles

Collaborators create innovative geotechnical sensor for road monitoring

Scientists develop precision arm for miniature robots

Engineering start-up secures investment for technology to release seized nuts and bolts

British company to design green gas-to-power barges for Greek islands

Footer

About Engineering Designer

Engineering Designer is the quarterly journal of the Insitution of Engineering Designers.

It is produced by the IED for our Members and for those who have an interest in engineering and product design, as well as CAD users.

Click here to learn more about the IED.

Other Pages

  • Contact us
  • About us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms
  • Institution of Engineering Designers

Search

Tags

ied

Copyright © 2023 · Site by Syon Media