Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered a process that could change how we handle plastic waste forever.
Melting, the traditional way of recycling plastic, degrades the material. Repeated recycling renders the material weak, and it is often discarded because of diminished durability and quality.
With the new recycling process, plastic is recycled by rearranging it at the molecular level — which is highly efficient. By using advanced chemical reactions, ORNL researchers found a way to strengthen recycled plastic.