An unexpected way to upcycle: Plastic waste transforms into soap
An unexpected way to upcycle: Plastic waste transforms into soap
Guoliang “Greg” Liu of the Department of Chemistry has discovered a new method of recycling plastics — from milk cartons, food containers, and plastic bags — into soap. The method: Heat the long carbon chains in the plastics then quickly cool them.
How scalable is this? Would the average recycle plant worker be able to do it themselves? Would each recycle plant be equipped with one of these ovens or would it require an overhaul of our recycling system?
It's often hard for me to intuitively wrap my head around the transformative nature of chemistry, the way that you can take one material or substance and change it into one that has entirely different properties really does seem like a kind of magic sometimes.
It's an interesting innovation if it can be scaled safely and sustainably. My understanding is that some surfactants (the product of the heating method here) can be toxic and not very environmentally friendly, hopefully this recycling method is not just kicking the can down the road on that sense.
If you want to deep dive into this transformative nature of chemistry, check out nilered on YouTube. He does videos where he transforms plastic gloves into hot sauce and cotton balls into cotton candy.
Really amazing to follow his process and way of thinking.
this is cool as fuck, science rules