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Making Persistent Plastics Degradable
Summary
This perspective outlines catalytic strategies to convert persistent polyethylene waste into propylene, which can then serve as a feedstock for biodegradable or on-demand degradable polymers — offering a path from recalcitrant fossil-plastic waste toward circular, sustainable materials.
The vastness of the scale of the plastic waste problem will require a variety of strategies and technologies to move toward sustainable and circular materials. One of these strategies to address the challenge of persistent fossil-based plastics is new catalytic processes that are being developed to convert recalcitrant waste such as polyethylene to produce propylene, which can be an important precursor of high-performance polymers that can be designed to biodegrade or to degrade on demand. Remarkably, this process also enables the production of biodegradable polymers using renewable raw materials. In this Perspective, current catalyst systems and strategies that enable the catalytic degradation of polyethylene to propylene are presented. In addition, concepts for using "green" propylene as a raw material to produce compostable polymers is also discussed.