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Chemistry and materials science for a sustainable circular polymeric economy
Summary
Researchers reflected on the fundamental chemistry challenges limiting a circular plastic economy — including the sheer variety of polymer types, contamination during use, and imperfect recycling — and argued that solving plastic pollution requires both chemical innovation and systemic non-chemical interventions.
Chemistry plays a determining role in every stage of the plastic life cycle. We reflect on the challenges and limitations of plastics - their sheer abundance, chemodiversity and imperfect recoverability leading to loss of material - and on the need for chemical and non-chemical approaches to overcome them.
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