The United States announced: invest 13.4 million US dollars to support waste plastic recycling

In order to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of single-use plastics, the US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it will provide $13.
4 million in funding for next-generation plastics technology
.
Seven R&D projects led by industry and universities received the funding
.
The seven projects will work to develop affordable "upcycled" solutions to convert waste plastic film into more valuable materials and to design new types of plastics that are easily recyclable and biodegradable
.

The plastic production process consumes a lot of energy.
According to statistics, plastic production accounts for more than 3% of the total energy consumption in the United States
.
Still, many of these materials end up in landfills or the environment, especially single-use plastics such as plastic bags, packaging, and films
.
Currently, less than 10% of plastic is recycled, and most is "down-cycled" for lower-value products
.

This investment will help the Department of Energy address the plastic waste recycling challenge and support the Biden administration to build a clean energy economy to ensure the United States achieves net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
.

The seven major projects that have received government funding are as follows:

Braskem (Pittsburgh, PA) will develop cyclically recyclable monomer polymer chemical bio-based multilayer films
.
($2 million)

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Ames, Iowa) will develop a closed-loop recycling technology that will enable the upgrading of single-use plastic films to biodegradable materials
.
($2.
5 million)

Michigan State University (East Lansing, Mich.
) will redesign existing recyclable plastics
.
($1,705,811)

North Carolina Agriculture and Technology State University (Greensboro, NC) catalytically deconstructs plasma-treated single-use plastics into value-added chemicals and novel materials
.
($2,499,994)

The TDA Research Center (Whiteledge, Colorado) will develop cyclically recyclable and biodegradable films for improved food packaging
.
($1,609,056)

The University of Massachusetts Lowell (Lowell, MA) will integrate delamination and carbonization processes for an upcycle of single-use multilayer plastic films
.
($1,600,276)

West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV) will develop a process for the modular upgrade of microwave-catalyzed reinforced plastic films to monomers
.
($1,500,001)

"Single-use plastics produce large amounts of hard-to-recycle carbon emissions that pollute beaches, parks and communities," said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M.
Granholm.
"Through improved technology, single-use plastics can be recycled and biodegraded.
At the same time, it will achieve the triple goals of reducing plastic waste, reducing plastic industry emissions, and providing clean jobs for American workers
.
"

Carbon emissions from the U.
S.
plastics industry are soaring

Recently, Bennington College's Beyond Plastic project group (Beyond Plastic) released a new report saying that plastic is the new type of coal that will have an impact on global climate change
.
According to the report "THE NEW COAL: PLASTICS & CLIMATE CHANGE," the plastics industry has already made an astonishing contribution to U.
S.
greenhouse gas emissions, and will even replace the coal industry as the largest contributor to climate change.
" murderer"!

The report provides a comprehensive description of the U.
S.
plastics industry's contribution to the climate crisis
.
From an energy perspective, plastics are a key driver of petrochemicals, and demand for plastics has outpaced all other bulk materials such as steel, oil, gas, and gas, the report noted
.

The U.
S.
petrochemical industry’s plastic infrastructure is expanding, and emissions are expected to increase substantially
.
At least 42 plastics facilities have opened, are under construction or are in the process of approval since 2019
.
If fully operational, these new plastics plants will release an additional 55 million tons of carbon dioxide gas by 2025, the equivalent of 27 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants
.

In order to reduce plastic pollution, on the one hand, governments of various countries have successively issued regulations to force the addition of recycled plastics.
For example, California passed and implemented the first recycled plastic bottle bill in the United States last year, requiring beverage bottles to be added with at least 15% recycled plastic, which will be increased to 50% by 2030; the United Kingdom From 1 April, a plastic packaging tax of £200 per tonne will be imposed on plastic packaging manufactured or imported into the UK with less than 30% recycled content
.
On the other hand, global consumer goods and retail giants such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, Nestle and Walmart last week called for a global deal to combat plastic pollution and increase the use of recycled plastic
.