A group of scientists from IBM and Stanford University have announced a chemistry breakthrough that they bellieve could change the nature of plastics and plastics recycling.
The team has developed a new method of using organic catalysts to produce and break down plastic polymers which could lead to plastics becoming endlessly recyclable.
Currently, many plastics, such as plastic bottles, can only be recycled once for what is called "second-generation use". Most bottles made from second-generation recycled plastic cannot be recycled again and are typically sent to landfills.
According to IBM, "the team has developed a new strategy for the synthesis of high molecular weight cyclic polyesters and the generation of new families of biocompatible polymers for biomedical applications."
