A new chemical process can essentially vaporize plastics that dominate the waste stream today and turn them into hydrocarbon building blocks for new plastics. The catalytic process, developed at the ...

Graduate student RJ Conk adjusts a reaction chamber in which mixed plastics are degraded into the reusable building blocks of new polymers. A new chemical process can essentially vaporize plastics ...

The life cycle of plastic begins underground, where oil and gas are extracted from deep below the surface of the planet. These fossil fuels are then refined in facilities, using extreme temperatures ...

Of the 10 billion metric tons of plastic that humans have produced so far, only a small fraction has been recycled. Most of it sits in landfills or in the environment, where it could take centuries to ...

Tiny creatures are gnawing away at plastic we humans are pouring into the environment, making the pollution less visible but potentially more problematic than ever, according to new research. In that ...

Why it matters: All that packaging we've treated as disposable may finally be reborn. Researchers have cracked the code for turning plastic back into the building blocks to make new plastics. It could ...

In this video, we demonstrate the process of transforming recycled polypropylene from shredded DVD cases into colored beams ...

Researchers have found a way to harvest hydrogen from plastic waste using a low-emissions method that generates graphene as a by-product, which could help offset production costs. Hydrogen is viewed ...

Moving towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle is something that's important to me, as I know it is for a lot of people. One way I've been trying to achieve this goal is by cutting way back ...