Upcycling and catalytic degradation of plastic wastes

TLDR

Plastic recycling technologies exist but face economic and technological challenges, and the degradation of nonrecoverable plastic waste is also essential to address widespread pollution. The review aims to explore upcycling as a way to extract value from plastic waste and to overview conversion to value‑added products and catalytic degradation of nonrecoverable plastics. The authors review state‑of‑the‑art plastic conversion designs producing high‑value fuels, chemicals, and materials, and highlight advances in catalytic degradation yielding environmentally benign products or complete mineralization to CO₂ and water. They conclude by outlining ongoing challenges and opportunities in plastic upcycling and catalytic degradation.

Abstract

Various recycling technologies have been developed to deal with plastic problems, but they face considerable economic and technological challenges in practice. An attractive alternative is upcycling, which aims to dig out the embedded value to incentivize large-scale valorization of plastic wastes. The degradation of nonrecoverable plastic wastes is another necessity to treat the omnipresent pollution. This review presents an overview on the conversion of plastic wastes toward value-added products and the catalytic degradation of nonrecoverable plastic wastes. Based on an examination of traditional recycling technologies and products, we summarize the state-of-the-art design and development of plastic conversion to high-value and high-performance fuels, chemicals, and materials. Subsequently, we highlight the advances in catalytic degradation of plastics to environmentally benign or degradable products and mineralization into carbon dioxide and water. We conclude with our perspective on the ongoing challenge and opportunities.