Plastic that can be used as fertilizer? UVic lab thinks it’s a possibility
Published 5:30 am Thursday, January 29, 2026
A University of Victoria lab is looking to better understand the periodic table in an effort to reduce environmental impact of synthetic materials made with carbon like plastics, fabrics and adhesives.
“For hundreds of years, chemistry has focused on the organic elements, the elements of life, such as carbon, oxygen and hydrogen,” said UVic chemistry professor Saurabh Chitnis in a news release. “The other hundred-plus elements remain poorly understood, but offer incredible potential.”
Carbon-based materials come with limitations. For example, organic polymers don’t have good thermal stability and will burn easily when exposed to heat or become brittle in the cold. They have significant environmental impacts, as they don’t degrade easily, clogging up landfills, and they maintain reliance upon fossil fuels as a source for material precursors.
Chitnis and his lab are exploring ways to embed non-carbon molecules into organic polymers with the goal of developing materials that are more stable, have additional thermal, magnetic and conductive properties, and don’t rely on carbon as a backbone.
One of the “promising” research projects is exploring how to replace carbon with nitrogen in polymers. While nitrogen typically wants to be a gas, his group has discovered some new tricks to force nitrogen into stable polymers, allowing it to be used as a backbone for various materials.
“Ideally, we want materials to be flexible so that they can be used across a wide range of applications. Organic polymers just don’t have that flexibility, but there is a lot of potential once we begin introducing inorganic elements to our polymers,” noted Chitnis.
The development of nitrogen-based plastics could help accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions future. Nitrogen, which comprises 78 per cent of the air on Earth, is abundant, and nitrogen-based plastics can also be fed to plants at the end of their life cycle, acting as a fertilizer as they slowly degrade.
“When you work in such a new area, it really democratizes science,” noted Chitnis. “Anyone can make a big discovery, because not that much is known and there’s so much waiting to be discovered.”
Chitnis took his associate professor position at UVic in July 2025 following a seven-year stint working at Dalhousie University. In the fall is was also named a named a tier 2 Canada research chair in inorganic polymers and materials.