Plastics are expensive to recycle, since to do so requires a two-phase process and there are needed temperatures close to 200ºC. It is cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle an existing one.
And consequently barely 10% of the plastics we use are recycled. And since more than 350 million tons of plastics are manufactured each year, the "problem" we have is huge and growing.
A very encouraging piece of news recently appeared in Science magazine regarding a new procedure for recycling plastics at low temperatures. The researchers have developed a plastic recycling system that is carried out in a single phase and at low temperatures (70ºC).
To do this, they use a new catalyst in a solution based on aluminum chloride-based solution. Under these conditions, the carbon bonds in the plastic break down to form other bonds that generate a “product” called “alkanes” that are gasoline-like compounds. And from those alkanes can be obtained other fuels or raw materials to manufacture new plastics.
In this way, by recycling some plastics, other plastics or other products can be obtained, without having to consume new fossil fuels. And the most important thing is that the process lasts about 3 hours and is carried out at low temperature, with little input of energy, so the cost of the products obtained can be cheaper than starting with new fossil fuels.
This process, developed in a laboratory, must be extended to industrial facilities to verify its results, and we hope that they will do so as soon as possible.
We need to recycle plastics with the utmost urgency !!
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