New Method Uses Collisions to Break Down Plastic for Sustainable Recycling

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): While plastics help enable modern standards of living, their accumulation in landfills and the overall environment continues to grow as a global concern.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the world’s most widely used plastics, with tens of millions of tons produced annually in the production of bottles, food packaging, and clothing fibers. The durability that makes PET so useful also means that it is more difficult to recycle efficiently.

Now, researchers have developed a method to break down PET using mechanical forces instead of heat or harsh chemicals. Published in the journal Chem, their findings demonstrate how a “mechanochemical” method — chemical reactions driven by mechanical forces such as collisions — can rapidly convert PET back into its basic building blocks, opening a path toward faster, cleaner recycling.

Led by postdoctoral researcher Kinga Gołąbek and Professor Carsten Sievers of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the research team hit solid pieces of PET with metal balls with the same force they would experience in a machine called a ball mill. This can make the PET react with other solid chemicals such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), generating enough energy to break the plastic’s chemical bonds at room temperature, without the need for hazardous solvents.

“We’re showing that mechanical impacts can help decompose plastics into their original molecules in a controllable and efficient way,” Sievers said. “This could transform the recycling of plastics into a more sustainable process.”

 Courtesy: www.newswire.com