Scientists Discover Chemical That Can Recycle Plastic in Just 24 Hours

Scientists have discovered a chemical that can recycle plastic in just 24 hours.

Scientists at King's College London found that the enzyme commonly used in most laundry detergents could assist with the recycling of single-use plastics, a material notoriously difficult to dispose of sustainably.

They have come up with a new way of recycling that uses these enzymes to break down the material. Their findings are published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Sciences.

Single-use plastics, often found in coffee cups and used to wrap certain food products, are usually bound for landfills, which is why scientists are working on easy ways to recycle the material. There are current methods for recycling these plastics, such as industrial composting. However, this takes 12 weeks.

This new method detailed by Kings College scientists converts them into a dissolvable material in just one day, the study reported. When the plastics are kept at a high temperature for a further 24 hours, they continue to break down into single molecules, which can then be used to create new plastics. Scientists believe this could be an innovative new way to recycle this problem material.

"We were certainly surprised," Alex Brogan, a lecturer in Chemistry at King's College London who worked on the study, told Newsweek. He said they had "a feeling it would work well, based on previous work with biomass," but that the result was a best-case scenario.

"Being able to harness biology to deliver sustainable solutions through chemistry allows us to start thinking of waste as a resource so that we can move away from oil and other non-renewable sources to create the materials we need for modern life," Brogan said in a summary of the findings.

A central problem concerning the recycling of single-use plastics is the slowness at which they break down. This can cause a major problem, seeing as manufacturers and consumers widely use them. In fact, they are often seen as a more sustainable choice for packaging.

However, its production can be highly detrimental to the planet. The study notes that current mechanical recycling methods generate Co2 emissions, and often, the material cannot even be reused.

"We are now working with engineers to investigate how we might be able to deploy this more widely," Brogan told Newsweek.

"The main issue really lies in the fact that we don't really have any effective recycling solutions for plastics like this. Bioplastics could play a big role in reducing dependency on oil to make the materials we need for modern life, but this lack of recycling means that they typically end up in landfill, and so that makes them quite unattractive. So in developing new ways to recycle them, we can try and encourage a circular economy for bioplastics that limits impact on the environment and reduces carbon footprint of producing plastics."

If this potential new method was adopted, it could see a large reduction in the plastic being taken to landfills and subsequently reduce the amount that ends up in nature.

"Our research marks the first step in developing new technologies in waste management for recycling bioplastics that are of equal quality to the virgin product. Until now this has been a major challenge in plastics recycling, as while bioplastics are made of biological materials, they are not all compostable and most current recycling methods are inefficient," Susana Meza Huaman, PhD researcher on the project at King's College London, said in a summary.

"Our chemical approach significantly speeds up the degradation of bioplastics, enabling them to be recycled and reused."

Update 02/01/2024, 06:12 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comment.

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