Good News As Unrecyclable Plastic Can Now Be Recycled!

Mankind has invented some of the most amazing things that add to our comfort and convenience, however, we have not yet found proper methods to deal with the waste. So, there is a reason to rejoice to know that scientists have found a way to recycle PVC, a type of plastic that is widely used but is unrecyclable. PVC, also known as polyvinyl chloride, is one of the plastics that is produced the most in the United States and ranks third globally in terms of volume. The majority of the plastics we use on a daily basis are made of PVC. Piping used in contemporary plumbing as well as a lot of the plastic used in hospital equipment, including tubing, blood bags, masks, and other items, is PVC. PVC is used in or made of window frames as well as siding, and flooring. It is used to make shower curtains, tents, tarps, garments and also to coat electrical wires. The only hitch was that it couldn’t be recycled and landed in landfills. Now, scientists at the University of Michigan have found a means to chemically recycle PVC into useful material. The research team is led by first author Danielle Fagnani and principal investigator Anne McNeil. One of the most toxic elements of PVC, the phthalates found in plasticizers, was cleverly used by researchers to mediate the chemical reaction. Recycling plastic entails the process of melting it down, but when PVC is heated it releases hydrochloric acid which leaches into the material, and also the equipment gets corroded. So Fagnani started looking into electrochemistry to create a non-heated method of recycling PVC and he met with success. The goal of McNeil's laboratory has been to create strategies for chemically recycling various types of polymers. Plastics might be broken down into their component parts to provide non-degraded materials that businesses could use again. The fact that PVC can now be chemically recycled spells good news.