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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Thermochemical and chemo-biological molecular recycling of plastic waste and plastic-biomass waste mixtures: an updated review
ClearProgressing Plastics Circularity: A Review of Mechano-Biocatalytic Approaches for Waste Plastic (Re)valorization
This review examined mechano-biocatalytic approaches to plastic waste valorization — combining mechanical pre-treatment with enzyme catalysis — and argued that this pairing offers a scalable route to chemical recycling of mixed plastic streams that conventional methods struggle to process.
Integration with biotechnological approaches for upcycling waste plastics
This review examines the limitations of mechanical, chemical, and thermal plastic recycling approaches — including restricted reprocessing cycles, high energy costs, and toxic emissions — and evaluates biotechnological strategies such as enzymatic and microbial degradation as complementary routes for waste plastic upcycling. The authors argue that integrating biological and chemical processes offers the most promising pathway for effective upcycling while reducing carbon emissions and advancing circular economy goals.
Microbial Degradation and Valorization of Plastic Wastes
This review covers recent advances in microbial and enzymatic degradation of synthetic plastic wastes, summarizing the microorganisms and enzymes capable of attacking different polymer types and assessing the prospects for biological plastic waste treatment at scale.
Perspectives on Thermochemical Recycling of End-of-Life Plastic Wastes to Alternative Fuels
This review examined thermochemical recycling technologies including pyrolysis, liquefaction, and gasification for converting plastic waste into clean fuels, discussing operating principles, barriers, and the potential for co-processing plastics with biomass.
Why have we not yet solved the challenge of plastic degradation by biological means?
This review explores why biological plastic degradation remains unsolved despite decades of research, examining the limitations of microbial and enzymatic approaches and arguing that complementary strategies combining multiple methods will be needed.
Materials challenges and opportunities to address growing micro/nanoplastics pollution: a review of thermochemical upcycling
This review examined thermochemical upcycling technologies including pyrolysis, gasification, and liquefaction as approaches to valorize micro- and nanoplastic waste, assessing the material challenges and opportunities for converting environmental plastic pollution into useful fuels or chemical feedstocks.
Emerging Technologies for Waste Plastic Treatment
This review surveyed emerging technologies for waste plastic treatment including chemical recycling, pyrolysis, biodegradation, and catalytic conversion, evaluating their potential to address the growing plastic pollution crisis more effectively than conventional methods.
Hybrid thermo-electrochemical conversion of plastic wastes commingled with marine biomass to value-added products using renewable energy
A hybrid thermo-electrochemical process was explored for converting marine plastic and biomass mixtures into useful energy products, addressing the challenge of plastics commingled with organic matter in ocean environments. The approach offers a potential pathway for valorizing hard-to-recycle marine waste streams.
[Preface to the special issue: biotechnology of plastic waste degradation and valorization].
This preface introduces a special issue on biotechnology approaches to plastic waste degradation and valorization, covering microbial and enzymatic strategies for breaking down synthetic plastics. Biological plastic degradation could help reduce the environmental persistence of plastics that eventually fragment into microplastics.
Toward Microbial Recycling and Upcycling of Plastics: Prospects and Challenges
This review examines the prospects and challenges of using microorganisms to recycle and upcycle plastic waste, assessing the current state of microbial degradation research across major polymer types. The authors identify metabolic engineering and synthetic biology as key tools needed to make biological plastic recycling economically viable at scale.
Emerging Technologies for Converting Mixed Plastic Waste into Biodegradable Polymers
Scientists are developing new ways to turn mixed plastic waste (like food containers and shopping bags) into biodegradable materials that naturally break down instead of polluting the environment. This research review summarizes promising techniques that could help reduce the microplastics that end up in our food and water. If these methods can be made affordable and used widely, they could significantly cut plastic pollution and the health risks it poses to humans.
Emerging Technologies for Converting Mixed Plastic Waste into Biodegradable Polymers
Scientists are developing new ways to turn mixed plastic waste (like food containers and shopping bags all jumbled together) into materials that naturally break down in the environment, instead of lasting forever like regular plastic. This research review shows these emerging technologies could help solve our plastic pollution problem by preventing more microplastics from forming and contaminating our food and water. If these methods can be scaled up, they could transform how we handle plastic waste and reduce health risks from tiny plastic particles that are increasingly found in our bodies.
Recovery of plastic waste through its thermochemical degradation: a review
This review examines pyrolysis as a promising technology for recovering valuable chemical compounds from plastic waste, which reached approximately 368 million tons of global production in 2020 alone. Researchers discuss how thermal and catalytic degradation can convert different types of thermoplastics into high-energy-value products. The study also highlights the environmental and health impacts of plastic accumulation, including the effects of microplastic consumption on human and animal health.
A Review on Biofuels and Chemicals Production by Co-pyrolysis of Solid Biomass Feedstocks and Non-degradable Plastics
This review examines co-pyrolysis processes that convert mixtures of plastic waste and solid biomass into fuels and chemical products. Co-pyrolysis offers a way to valorize plastic waste that would otherwise break down into microplastics in the environment, while also producing usable energy.
Microbial plastic degradation: enzymes, pathways, challenges, and perspectives.
This review synthesizes current knowledge on microbial plastic degradation, covering the enzymes and metabolic pathways involved in breaking down major synthetic polymers, the challenges limiting efficient biodegradation, and perspectives for engineering improved microbial solutions to plastic waste.
Expanding plastics recycling technologies: chemical aspects, technology status and challenges
This review examined the full life cycle of plastics and evaluated options for managing plastic waste, with a focus on chemical recycling technologies. The study suggests that overcoming barriers to industrial chemical recycling could open new opportunities for reducing plastic pollution.
Approaches for Management and Valorization of Non-Homogeneous, Non-Recyclable Plastic Waste
This review examined management and valorization strategies for non-homogeneous, non-recyclable plastic waste, evaluating chemical recycling, energy recovery, and upcycling approaches as pathways to reduce environmental plastic accumulation and recover value from difficult-to-process waste streams.
Assessment, Characterization, and Bioprocessing of E-Waste Plastics in the Environment
This review explores the environmental and health challenges posed by electronic waste plastics, which contain complex mixtures of harmful chemicals. The study examines emerging biotechnological solutions such as microbial degradation and enzymatic breakdown as promising alternatives for recycling e-waste plastics, while noting that challenges related to scalability, toxicity, and economic viability remain to be addressed.
Recent advances and challenges in sustainable management of plastic waste using biodegradation approach
This review provides a comprehensive overview of plastic biodegradation as a sustainable strategy for managing plastic waste accumulation. Researchers surveyed recent breakthroughs in identifying microorganisms and enzymes capable of breaking down various plastic polymers under relatively mild conditions. The study highlights that while biodegradation shows promise as an eco-friendly alternative to conventional waste management, significant challenges remain in scaling these approaches for practical application.
Microbial biodegradation of plastics: Challenges, opportunities, and a critical perspective
Researchers reviewed microbial biodegradation of synthetic plastics, summarizing the bacterial and fungal species, enzymes, and biochemical pathways capable of breaking down common polymers and arguing that combining microbial approaches with physicochemical methods offers the most promising eco-friendly route to plastic waste remediation.
Plastic waste impact and biotechnology: Exploring polymer degradation, microbial role, and sustainable development implications
Researchers reviewed how microorganisms and their enzymes can break down different types of plastic waste through both aerobic (oxygen-using) and anaerobic (oxygen-free) pathways. The review highlights biotechnological tools like genetic modification that could accelerate plastic biodegradation, supporting a shift toward a circular economy.
Recent Advances in the Chemobiological Upcycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) into Value-Added Chemicals
This review covers recent advances in biological and chemical upcycling of PET plastic waste into value-added chemicals, examining degradation pathways including pyrolysis, gasification, and enzymatic depolymerization that break PET into monomers for use as bioconversion substrates.
Critical advances and assessment on chemo-biological conversions of waste polyvinyl chloride
Researchers reviewed chemical and biological strategies for recycling polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste — including microbial degradation, thermolysis, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis — and found thermolysis to be the most practically scalable method, while noting that microbial approaches remain limited by the absence of efficient enzymes and metabolic pathways for PVC breakdown.
Cutting-edge developments in plastic biodegradation and upcycling via engineering approaches
This review examines how engineering approaches from synthetic biology and metabolic engineering can improve both the breakdown and upcycling of plastic waste. Researchers found that various microorganisms and their enzymes can degrade plastics and convert the resulting monomers into valuable products like biosurfactants, bioplastics, and biochemicals. The study suggests that optimizing microbial pathways and using hybrid chemo-biological approaches could help build a more sustainable circular plastic economy.