Researchers find methods to turn plastic waste into soap and containers

-New method for upcycling plastic waste is environmentally friendly and will help reduce plastic pollution

RICHMOND, Virginia – Guoliang Liu, a researcher at Virginia Tech, has discovered a new method for upcycling plastic waste into soap.

The process involves breaking down the plastic’s long polyethylene chains into shorter chains that resemble the fatty acids in soap.

Although plastics should never be burned in a fireplace for safety and environmental reasons, Liu and his two associates have set up a special furnace in the lab.

They heat plastic in a laboratory oven in a process called temperature gradient thermolysis.

The process breaks down the polymer chains, and at the end, the oven is cooled to a low enough temperature to prevent further degradation.

The resulting short-chain polyethylene is then used to make soap through a process called saponification.

This new method for upcycling plastic waste is environmentally friendly and could help reduce plastic pollution in the world.

The researchers believe this new method for upcycling plastic waste could be also used to make milk jugs, food containers, and plastic bags.

“Our research demonstrates a new route for plastic upcycling without using novel catalysts or complex procedures. In this work, we have shown the potential of a tandem strategy for plastic recycling,” said Zhen Xu, lead author on the paper published in Science, and one of the Ph.D. students.

“This will enlighten people to develop more creative designs of upcycling procedures in the future.”

Researchers claim the process is relatively simple and does not require harmful chemicals.