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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Cross-Linked Polyolefins: Opportunities for Fostering Circularity Throughout the Materials Lifecycle
ClearChemical recycling of polyolefins: a closed-loop cycle of waste to olefins
This review examines chemical recycling methods that can convert polyolefin plastic waste back into olefins, creating a true closed-loop cycle. Researchers describe how pyrolysis, including thermal, catalytic, and solvent-based approaches, breaks down plastic waste into reusable chemical building blocks. The study suggests that chemical recycling holds significant potential for addressing plastic pollution by turning waste into valuable raw materials rather than sending it to landfills.
Recent Advances in Catalytic Chemical Recycling of Polyolefins
This review examines recent scientific advances in catalytic chemical recycling of polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, which account for nearly 50% of all plastic production by mass. Researchers highlight catalytic processes that can break down polyolefin waste at lower temperatures than pyrolysis, with the goal of upcycling discarded plastics into functional chemicals rather than sending them to landfill.
Circularity in polymers: addressing performance and sustainability challenges using dynamic covalent chemistries
Researchers reviewed how dynamic covalent chemistry can be applied to polymeric materials to enable closed-loop recyclability, addressing the waste accumulation caused by current plastics. The study examines how reversible chemical bonds can be tailored for specific reprocessing conditions and evaluates the potential economic and environmental impacts of these recyclable polymer systems.
Current Advances and Challenges in Chemical Recycling of Polymeric Materials
This review examines current advances and remaining challenges in chemical recycling of polymeric materials as an alternative to mechanical recycling, which degrades material properties with repeated cycling. The authors discuss the high efficiency and simpler preprocessing requirements of chemical recycling methods against a backdrop of approximately 150 million metric tonnes of annual global plastic waste generation.
Precise activation of C–C bonds for recycling and upcycling of plastics
This perspective examines strategies for recycling and upcycling polyolefin plastics by precisely activating and cleaving the inert carbon-carbon bonds in plastic waste. Researchers surveyed catalytic approaches from related chemistry fields, including lignin degradation and alkane dehydrogenation, that could inspire new methods for breaking down plastics. The study highlights cross-disciplinary opportunities for developing more effective catalytic technologies to address the growing plastic waste crisis.
Melt-Blown Cross-Linked Fibers from Thermally Reversible Diels–Alder Polymer Networks
New crosslinked polymer fibers were made using a reversible chemical reaction, producing materials that can be remelted and reprocessed. Designing plastics that can be thermally recycled could help reduce the amount of plastic waste that degrades into microplastics in the environment.
Barriers to the Circularity of Single-Use Plastic Food Packaging in the European Union
This thesis examines the barriers preventing single-use plastic food packaging from achieving true circularity within the EU, focusing on mechanical recycling challenges and the regulatory hurdles around using recycled plastics in food contact materials. Through literature review and stakeholder interviews, the study finds that polyolefins face particular barriers due to strict food safety regulations that currently prevent their recycling back into food-grade applications.
Bio-based plastics in a circular economy: A review of recovery pathways and implications for product design
Researchers reviewed how bio-based plastics — made from renewable plant sources — can be recovered and recycled at end-of-life, finding that the feasibility of eight different recovery methods depends heavily not just on plastic chemistry but on how products are designed, and offering guidance for designers to improve recyclability.
Polymers in Circular Economy: A Comprehensive Approach to Sustainability. An overview.
This review examines the role of polymers within the circular economy framework, analyzing strategies for reducing plastic consumption, improving recyclability, and transitioning toward more sustainable production and waste management models. The authors discuss the importance of government regulation and industry standards in driving circular economy adoption, while acknowledging barriers including economic inertia, upfront investment costs, and resistance to systemic change.
The Frontier of Plastics Recycling: Rethinking Waste as a Resource for High‐Value Applications
This review examines the current state and future prospects of plastics recycling within a circular economy framework, arguing that mechanical recycling alone is insufficient and that chemical recycling, design-for-recyclability, and extended producer responsibility must all be scaled simultaneously. The authors identify high-value applications for recycled plastics as essential incentives for building economically sustainable recycling systems.
Review of key issues and potential strategies in bio-degradation of polyolefins
This review examines the challenges of biodegrading polyolefins — the most widely used plastics — highlighting the limited number of known degrading enzymes, their poor efficiency, and incomplete understanding of their catalytic mechanisms, with incomplete degradation itself producing microplastics. The review argues that multienzyme systems and better mechanistic understanding are needed before biological polyolefin degradation can become a practical waste management tool.
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.
Sistemas de revalorización de poliolefinas procedentes de residuos sólidos urbanos
This Spanish thesis examined systems for recovering and reusing polyolefin plastics from municipal solid waste, evaluating mechanical and chemical recycling approaches. Improving plastic recovery rates reduces the volume of plastic waste that eventually fragments into microplastics in landfills and the environment.
Polymer‐Based Recycling Strategies for Plastic Waste: A Comprehensive Review
This comprehensive review evaluates mechanical and chemical recycling strategies for plastic waste, noting that mechanical recycling is widely used but limited by polymer degradation, while chemical recycling offers higher quality recovery but at greater energy and financial cost. The study highlights emerging technologies including AI-assisted sorting, nanotechnology, and biodegradable polymer development as promising approaches for building a more circular plastics economy.
Polypropylene Contamination in Post-Consumer Polyolefin Waste: Characterisation, Consequences and Compatibilisation
Researchers characterized polypropylene contamination in post-consumer polyolefin plastic waste, finding that heterogeneous contaminants significantly compromise recycled material properties and examined compatibilisation strategies to improve recycling outcomes.
Chemistry and materials science for a sustainable circular polymeric economy
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.
Polymers Recycling: Upcycling Techniques. an Overview
This paper is not about microplastics in a research sense; it is an overview of polymer recycling and upcycling techniques, mentioning microplastic accumulation briefly as motivation but not investigating microplastics directly.
Upcycling of waste plastics: strategies, status-quo, and prospects
This review examines strategies for upcycling waste plastics into valuable products as an alternative to landfilling and incineration, which generate microplastics and carbon emissions respectively. Researchers survey chemical recycling methods including pyrolysis, gasification, and catalytic processes that can convert common plastics like PET, polyethylene, and polystyrene into fuels, chemicals, and new materials. The study highlights the urgent need for more effective recycling technologies to address the growing gap between plastic production and waste management capacity.
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.
Sustainable Petrochemical Alternatives From Plastic Upcycling
This review examined pathways for upcycling plastic waste into sustainable petrochemical alternatives, addressing the poor end-of-life recovery prospects that allow carbon-rich plastics to degrade into microplastics in landfills and oceans. The paper assessed chemical and thermochemical conversion technologies that could turn plastic waste into feedstocks for the chemical industry.
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.
Are Reliable and Emerging Technologies Available for Plastic Recycling in a Circular Economy?
This review examines the current landscape of plastic recycling technologies -- including mechanical, thermal, chemical, and biological depolymerization methods such as pyrolysis -- evaluating their readiness for circular economy integration. It concludes that while recycling rates remain below 10% globally, emerging technologies offer pathways toward closed-loop plastic supply chains, though full-scale implementation requires further development and performance assessment.
Recycled (Bio)Plastics and (Bio)Plastic Composites: A Trade Opportunity in a Green Future
This review covers the recycling of thermoplastic, thermoset, biopolymer, and composite materials, discussing the technical and market challenges of creating high-quality secondary raw materials. The authors argue that improved material specificity, cleanliness standards, and integrated market systems are needed to make plastic and bioplastic recycling a commercially viable circular economy opportunity.
Conversion of Polyolefin Waste Into Fuels and Other Valuable Products by Hydrothermal Processing
This research explored ways to convert plastic waste, including polyolefins like polyethylene and polypropylene, into usable fuels and other valuable products through hydrothermal processing. Finding efficient recycling pathways is critical given that only 9% of the 350 million tons of plastic waste generated annually is currently recycled.