UC Berkeley researchers crack the code on recycling plastic

Scientists at UC Berkeley say they’ve cracked the code to reduce the amount of plastics that pollute the earth.

The researchers have come up with a chemical recycling process that pulls apart the chains of the most commonly used plastic.

“We're trying to turn the plastics back into the raw materials that made them, which are gasses,” said grad student RJ Conk, who led the research.

He said that once the plastic is broken down, it can be recycled and used again.

Study co-author John Hartwig says they basically cracked the code on recycling plastics so that less pollution clutters the planet.

“Much of the plastic that we're not supposed to put in our recycling stream we could consider as a feedstock for creating new plastics,” he said. “And by doing that, we're not going to make more plastic. We're just going to take less carbon out of the ground and less petroleum out of the ground to make the plastics that we're already making.”

Hartwig does note that putting the recycling process into practice “will take many steps,” and that plastics that include PVC, polystyrene, or contaminants like food dye still can’t be recycled.

“But I think what we've shown is that this could be feasible to do, and I think before this people didn't think that was possible,” he said.

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The research was published last week in the journal Science.

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