Chemical Engineers developed a way to break down plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate -- or PET, and recycle it back into high value uses like more soda bottles, water bottles, beer bottles.
Inside the recycling plant's extruder, water is removed from ground up plastic. Then, the plastic is melted and chemically broken down -- in a process called depolymerization. The breakthrough in this process is to be able to go from chips of this plastic to the recycled material in about five minutes.
Recycled bottles are not made into new bottles -- they're used for lower grade plastics to build things like playgrounds -- but a new machine may change that!
"What you want to do, ideally, is take that material and recycle it back into high value uses like more soda bottles, water bottles, beer bottles", said George Roberts, a chemical engineer at North Carolina State University.
Read the full story from the source, Science Daily magazine. There is also an accompanying video interview with Dr. Roberts discussing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) depolymerization.Resources:
San Francisco's Plastic Bag Ban - a Report from the City
Progressive Green Radio for San Francisco
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