11 Oct 2022 --- A cobalt-based catalyst could be the answer to circularizing the plastic packaging waste economy, according to new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. The university’s research team has discovered the material could break down mixed plastics into propane, which can then be burned as fuel or used to make new plastic. The solution offers an answer to the two central challenges in today’s recycling systems: a vast disparity in plastic chemical compositions, many of which are multi-layered and mixed (making them harder to reprocess), and varying sortation systems for separating these materials at the end-of-life stage.
