{"id":586657,"date":"2026-04-05T08:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T08:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T08:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T08:08:18","slug":"breakthrough-method-offers-endless-recycling-of-a-widely-used-plastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586657\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthrough Method Offers Endless Recycling of a Widely Used Plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"0\">Researchers at the University of Bath have found a new way to recycle acrylic that could change how we deal with one of the world\u2019s most common plastics. You probably know acrylic by one of its brand names: Plexiglas. It\u2019s almost everywhere, from car parts and phone screens to construction materials.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"1\">Right now, we use about 3 million tons of it every year. However, the problem is recycling it.<\/p>\n<p>Why Old Recycling Methods Don\u2019t Work<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">Usually, plastic is recycled mechanically, which means shredding or melting it down. However, every time you do that to acrylic, the quality drops. It gets discolored and loses that glass-like clarity, so you can\u2019t really use it for things like spectacles or high-end screens anymore.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Another option is pyrolysis, which heats the plastic to around 400\u00b0C to break it back down into its original building blocks. But that uses a massive amount of energy and gets messed up easily if other types of plastic get mixed in.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">\u201cWith current methods for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com\/energy\/u-s-selects-five-firms-to-advance-nuclear-fuel-recycling\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recycling<\/a> both energy intensive and inefficient, the demand for cleaner, more efficient recycling technologies has never been greater,\u201d Dr. Jon Husband, a research fellow at the University\u2019s Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change, explained. \u201cPlastic recycling can be tough to make economically feasible, due to issues around high energy costs and low-quality product; this work directly addresses both of these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnzipping\u201d the Plastic<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"plastic recycling\" alt=\"plastic recycling\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/acrylic-recycling.png\" data- class=\"wp-image-51740 size-full lazyload\"\/>Acrylic plastic recycling; Photo: University of Bath<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">The team at Bath found a way to \u201cunzip\u201d the plastic using UV light. By using specific <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com\/travel\/sustainable-travel-trends-in-2026-according-to-experts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sustainable<\/a> solvents and keeping oxygen out, they can break the acrylic down at temperatures between 120\u00b0C and 180\u00b0C. That is much cooler than the old methods, which makes it cheaper and better for the planet.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">This process turns more than 95% of the plastic into a high-quality material that can be used to make brand-new acrylic.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">\u201cDeveloping new chemical recycling approaches matters because it turns waste back into pristine new materials, rather than a lower\u2011grade, low-value material destined for eventual disposal,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1122443\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said Dr. Simon Freakley<\/a>. \u201cThis method allows us to recover high-quality monomers from used PMMA, offering a clear pathway toward genuine circularity in acrylic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">For now, the researchers are working with a few grams of plastic at a time, but they are already looking for ways to scale the process up for industrial use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at the University of Bath have found a new way to recycle acrylic that could change how&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,337,128,42119],"class_list":{"0":"post-586657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-research","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-world-of-innovation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}