New Technologies are Needed to Improve the Recycling and Upcycling of Waste Plastics

Arthur J Ragauskas; George W Huber; Jia Wang; Adam Guss; Hugh M O'Neill; Carol Sze Ki Lin; Yanqin Wang; Frederik R Wurm; Xianzhi Meng

doi:10.1002/cssc.202101872

New Technologies are Needed to Improve the Recycling and Upcycling of Waste Plastics

ChemSusChem. 2021 Oct 5;14(19):3982-3984. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202101872.

Authors

Arthur J Ragauskas^{1

2

3}, George W Huber⁴, Jia Wang⁵, Adam Guss¹, Hugh M O'Neill⁶, Carol Sze Ki Lin⁷, Yanqin Wang⁸, Frederik R Wurm⁹, Xianzhi Meng²

Affiliations

¹ UTK-ORNL Joint Institute for Biological Science, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
² Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
³ Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, Center for Renewable Carbon, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁵ Jiangsu Co - Innovation Center for Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, International Innovation Center for Forest Chemicals and Materials, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, P. R. China.
⁶ Neutron Scattering Division and Center for Structural Molecular Biology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
⁷ School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Hong Kong, P. R. China.
⁸ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry and Research, Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No. 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
⁹ Sustainable Polymer Chemistry, Department of Molecules and Materials, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiteit Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands.

PMID: 34609796
DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202101872

Abstract

In their Editorial to the Special Issue on The Chemistry of Waste Plastics Upcycling, the Guest Editors Adam Guss, George Huber, Carol Lin, Xianzhi Meng, Hugh O'Neill, Arthur Ragauskas, Jia Wang, Yanqin Wang, and Frederik Wurm highlight some of the increasingly urgent efforts being made by chemists to address challenges related to the fate of plastics at the end of, their useful lives and the valorization of plastic waste.

Keywords: circular economy; heterogeneous catalysis; plastics; recycling; waste valorization.

Publication types

Editorial