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Researchers unlock cheap way to vaporize plastic and use it to make more plastic | The breakthrough enables a circular economy where plastic doesn't end up sitting in landfills


Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a new catalytic process that can vaporize the polyethylene (single-use bags) and polypropylene (hard plastics) that dominate trash piles, converting them...

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a new catalytic process that can vaporize the polyethylene (single-use bags) and polypropylene (hard plastics) that dominate trash piles, converting them into propylene and other hydrocarbon gases. "What we can now do, in principle, is take those objects and bring them back to the starting monomer by chemical reactions we've devised that cleave the typically stable carbon-carbon bonds." While companies are trying to cut down on plastics as part of the recent global green awakening, it's almost impossible to replace the "miracle material."

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