Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

An Overview of the Non-Energetic Valorization Possibilities of Plastic Waste via Thermochemical Processes

This review surveys non-energetic valorization options for plastic waste through chemical recycling, covering solvolysis, enzymatic depolymerization, and catalytic cracking pathways that recover monomers or chemical feedstocks. The authors compare process maturity and economic viability, identifying PET and nylon depolymerization as the most commercially advanced chemical recycling routes.

2024 Materials 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Beyond Mechanical Recycling: Giving New Life to Plastic Waste

This review examines chemical recycling processes — including pyrolysis, solvolysis, and gasification — as alternatives to mechanical recycling for plastic waste, comparing their technical readiness, environmental performance via life-cycle analysis, and commercial development status.

2020 Angewandte Chemie International Edition 1657 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Preprints.org 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastics Recycling

This review examines the full landscape of plastic recycling, covering mechanical and chemical recycling processes for major resin types including PE, HDPE, LDPE, PET, polyurethanes, polystyrene, and polypropylene, alongside chemical upcycling of waste plastics into higher-value products. The chapter also addresses the environmental and economic benefits of recycling, plastic resin labelling systems, and the persistent challenges limiting recycling rates globally.

2025
Article Tier 2

Research progress on chemical depolymerization and upcycling of PET waste plastics

This review examines recent advances in chemical methods for breaking down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste plastics into useful raw materials. Researchers surveyed techniques including glycolysis, methanolysis, hydrolysis, and aminolysis that can convert PET back into monomers for reuse. The study highlights chemical depolymerization as a promising approach to reduce plastic pollution while recovering valuable materials from waste.

2025 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation

This review covers metal-catalysed depolymerisation approaches for recycling and upcycling waste plastics back into monomers or value-added chemicals, highlighting recent advances in catalyst design that improve selectivity and yield for common polymer types.

2021 Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry 57 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2026 Environmental Quality Management
Article Tier 2

On technological solutions for recycling of recycling of polymer waste: A review

This paper is not directly about microplastics; it reviews technological approaches to recycling polymer waste — mechanical, chemical, and energy-based methods — and analyzes their economic and environmental trade-offs. Better plastic recycling technology is relevant to microplastic prevention insofar as it reduces the amount of plastic that degrades into environmental microplastic particles.

2024 E3S Web of Conferences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2022 Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 39 citations
Article Tier 2

Comparsion of Catalyst Effectiveness in Different Chemical Depolymerization Methods of Poly(ethylene terephthalate)

This review compares the effectiveness of different catalysts used in chemical recycling methods for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. The study covers hydrolysis, methanolysis, glycolysis, and other depolymerization approaches, comparing key process parameters like temperature, reaction time, and yields to help identify the most efficient PET recycling strategies.

2023 Molecules 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent Progress in Polyolefin Plastic: Polyethylene and Polypropylene Transformation and Depolymerization Techniques

This review covers new methods for breaking down polyethylene and polypropylene, the two most common types of plastic, into reusable materials. Since mechanical recycling only handles a small fraction of plastic waste, chemical approaches like pyrolysis and hydrogenolysis offer more promising solutions. These techniques are important because the breakdown of these same plastics into microplastics is a major source of environmental and health contamination.

2024 Molecules 10 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Strategic Possibility Routes of Recycled PET

This review examined chemical and mechanical recycling technologies for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste, comparing glycolysis, methanolysis, hydrolysis, and enzymatic depolymerization routes in terms of yield, product purity, and scalability, and highlighting pathways most suitable for circular economy applications.

2021 Polymers 207 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2022 Green Chemistry 511 citations
Review Tier 2

A focused review on recycling and hydrolysis techniques of polyethylene terephthalate

This review examines techniques for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most common plastics found as microplastic pollution. Chemical recycling through hydrolysis shows the most promise for breaking PET back into its original building blocks for reuse. Improving PET recycling is important because reducing plastic waste at the source is one of the most effective ways to decrease microplastic contamination in the environment.

2023 Polymer Engineering and Science 154 citations
Article Tier 2

Strategies and technologies for sustainable plastic waste treatment and recycling

This review covers current and emerging methods for recycling and treating plastic waste to reduce environmental pollution. The authors emphasize that improperly managed plastics break down into microplastics that contaminate ecosystems, and they evaluate strategies including chemical recycling, biodegradation, and energy recovery as more sustainable alternatives to landfilling.

2025 Environmental Functional Materials 10 citations
Article Tier 2

DePoly

This article profiles DePoly, a Swiss startup using chemical recycling to break down PET and other plastics back into their original monomers for reuse. Chemical recycling could reduce plastic fragmentation into microplastics by recovering polymers before they enter the environment.

2023 C&EN Global Enterprise 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemical Recycling of Mixed Plastics in Electronic Waste Using Solvent-Based Processing

Researchers developed a solvent-based chemical recycling process capable of separating and recovering mixed plastics from electronic shredder residue, demonstrating that targeted solvent systems can selectively dissolve specific polymer types and enable higher-quality recycling of e-waste plastics.

2021 Processes 42 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemical Recycling of Polycarbonate and Polyester without Solvent and Catalyst: Mechanochemical Methanolysis

This study presents a solvent-free, mechanochemical method for recycling polycarbonate and polyester plastics back into reusable monomers using ball-milling. This green approach could help reduce the accumulation of hard-to-recycle plastics that eventually fragment into microplastics in the environment.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 4 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 28 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Trends for the Thermal Degradation of Polymeric Materials: Analysis of Available Techniques, Issues, and Opportunities

This review analyzed thermal degradation methods for mixed polymer waste streams including PET, PP, and tire rubber, examining pyrolysis conditions and reaction mechanisms for different plastic types. The authors identified opportunities to improve thermal recycling technologies and reduce the fraction of plastic waste that enters the environment as microplastics.

2022 Applied Sciences 51 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial Degradation of Plastic Polymers

This review examines microbial degradation pathways for common synthetic plastics including polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, PVC, polyurethane, and PET, describing how mechanical and biological processes fragment plastics into microplastics and how microorganisms can be leveraged to address plastic pollution in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

2025