UC Berkeley chemists discover new way to break down common plastics

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Research published on Thursday out of UC Berkeley explores a newly-discovered chemical process that breaks down the most common plastics in things like water bottles and milk jugs.

"We hope that this method can kind of provide a better alternative to traditional mechanical recycling where instead of a lower value product out of the recycling process, you can get the exact same plastic by just recreating it from scratch," Richard 'RJ' Conk, a UC Berkeley chemistry Ph.D. candidate said.

Conk built off years of prior research by Cal students and found a new way to take apart some of the most difficult plastics to deconstruct.

We're talking about plastic water bottles, soap bottles, shopping bags and more, according to adviser John Hartwig.

"Sandwich bags, but also large objects and construction materials, as well as the milk jug, the yogurt container," John Hartwig, a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry said.

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Here's how it works.

Chemists combine waste plastics with two catalysts - sodium and tungsten.

Then seal it inside a high-pressure reactor, add ethylene, heat it and stir for about an hour and a half, open up the reactor and this is the result: no more plastic.

Just raw materials that can now be recycled.

"I began to start to lose hope but one day, he came to me and actually said, 'I have the best results I think I'm ever going to show you' and at the end of the meeting, I said, 'yes, that's true,'" Hartwig said.

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On Thursday, this research was formally published in the journal, "Science."

"It is one of the most prestigious highest impact publication forums that we have in sciences and there's usually only one or two papers in chemistry per issue because it covers all of science," he said.

Big picture, they hope this process eventually will lead to less plastic in landfills.

"I think the goal is to provide an economic incentive to collect plastic waste or at least a disincentive to throw it out into the environment," Conk said. "If you can make it cheaper to recycle a plastic, then less ends up out in the environment."

A feat, conquered after years of trial and error, with a little catalyst of luck.

"It's really exciting because at the end of the day, what motivates me to do science is that it has the potential to help out people and improve lives," he said.