Fantastic, plastic turns into spice

US researchers have found a way to upcycle plastic waste into more valuable products

Guoliang Liu and colleagues at Virginia Tech have developed a way to break down polystyrene and convert it into a more valuable chemical

Discarded polystyrene protective packaging and takeaway food containers will not decompose naturally

Liu Guoliang said that currently less than 10% of polystyrene in the world is recycled, and many countries do not recycle it at all because there is no economic benefit

Guoliang Liu and colleagues used ultraviolet light as an energy source and aluminum chloride as a catalyst to break down the chemical structure of polystyrene

Diphenylmethane, a chemical commonly used in fragrances and medicines, is 10 times more valuable than polystyrene, so the conversion technology yields an economic benefit of reducing polystyrene waste

The reaction can be carried out at ambient temperature and pressure, and it requires less energy than existing polystyrene recycling or upgrading methods

"The most interesting thing is that we didn't employ really stringent conditions, expensive catalysts, or fancy reactions

Liu Guoliang's team is developing a catalog of other valuable chemicals that can be obtained by altering the chemical reactions in the final step of the upcycling process

This concept also applies to almost all other plastic products, thus helping to turn one of the biggest environmental threats into a sustainable circular economy

Bushra Al-Duri of the University of Birmingham, UK, said the process is more economical than existing recycling methods, but the downside is that it takes more time as it scales