Innovative approaches for recycling mixed plastics.

Polymer chemists at Colorado State University, in collaboration with professors at Columbia University, have developed a new chemical strategy that uses small molecules called universal dynamic crosslinkers to transform mixed plastic waste into a new set of polymers, which can be upcycled into higher-value, re-processable materials. The crosslinkers make the mixed plastics compatible with each other through in-situ formation of a new material, called a multiblock copolymer, without deconstructing or reconstructing any of the original polymers. This new method of upcycling could help achieve the ultimate goal of reusing mixed plastic waste over multiple use cycles.