Plastic waste is one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time. Less than 10 percent of the plastic we use is recycled, and there\u2019s currently an estimated 100 million tons of plastic in oceans around the world. But what would happen if we stopped thinking of plastic as waste, and instead as a valuable renewable resource?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists around the world want to find out. The plastic \u201cend-of-life challenge\u201d calls for new ways to recycle and reuse plastics endlessly in a closed loop system, so they never become waste. Innovation on that scale would convert the current \u201cmake-take-dispose\u201d linear economy into a circular economy, where recycling plastic for eternity is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Layman, head of material science at Procter & Gamble and chief technologist and founding inventor of PureCycle Technologies, developed a revolutionary process to remove color, odor, and contaminants from polypropylene plastic waste and transform it into a \u201cvirgin-like\u201d resin, which is the basis for plastic products. PureCycle\u2019s technology presents a major development in recycling capabilities and focusing on polypropylene is especially notable. It\u2019s the second-most used plastic in the world, yet only 1 percent is currently recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Layman\u2019s colleague and former classmate Scott Trenor, a senior polymer scientist at Milliken & Company, contributed a key set of plastic additives to increase the viability of PureCycle materials\u2026 Now Milliken and PureCycle are working together to scale and advance the technology, with plans to start commercial-scale production at PureCycle\u2019s first plant, in Ohio, in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To recycle polypropylene into higher-value products, Layman knew he would first have to purify the plastic waste, and in an energy-efficient way. He worked on the discovery phase with financial backing from an internal seed fund program at P&G. The resulting PureCycle technology relies on a physical solvent-based process that uses less energy than a chemical process because it doesn\u2019t have to break down and build up the molecule. \u201cIt\u2019s the combination of the solvent choice, plus specific process steps, that enable us to purify this material in a way that nobody\u2019s been able to do before,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first PureCycle plant is expected to purify and recycle 119 million pounds of polypropylene and produce 105 million pounds each year. Those numbers sound huge, but Layman puts it in perspective by pointing out that 120 billion pounds of polypropylene were produced globally in 2018 alone. \u201cYou can see we have a long way to go,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After doing some research on top of this article, I found that it is true that there is very little plastic that is actually recycled. It is sad and frustrating from a sustainability standpoint that even if you try to make a green and cleaner Earth, most of the time what you are doing doesn\u2019t change anything. The company PureCycle is looking to change the way of recycling plastics. They have gone through different tests and projects to see how they can reuse them and make \u201cnew\u201d plastics in a few different ways. I think that this project should be sustainable or at least it can use materials and things that were recycled or repurposed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n