Environmental imperatives drive the development of technologies for the chemical recycling of plastic waste, but significant hurdles – including economic viability, collection logistics and feedstock complexity – need to be addressed for chemical recycling to have a larger impact

Plastic waste continues to be a major global environmental issue. While mechanical recycling, where plastic waste is ground up and remelted, remains the most prominent form of plastics recycling, its limitations (material degradation, contamination and performance) prevent it from enabling real plastics circularity. The field of chemical recycling of plastics, which aims to break down polymers into starting materials that are chemically equivalent to petroleum-derived feedstock, is a fast-evolving area that is critical for achieving true plastics circularity.

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