{"id":585793,"date":"2026-08-07T08:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585793\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T08:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:18:21","slug":"hard-to-recycle-pvc-turned-into-sustainable-lubricant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585793\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard-to-recycle PVC turned into sustainable lubricant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1<\/p>\n

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy<\/a>. You may unsubscribe at any time.<\/p>\n

Polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC<\/a>, is most frequently found in pipes, credit cards, plastic bottles, electrical cable insulation, and other everyday items. PVC demand is high, too, with around 40 million tons of the material<\/a> produced every year. It\u2019s also one of the most difficult plastics to recycle, thanks to its additives and high chlorine content, meaning the vast majority of PVC winds up in landfills.<\/p>\n

Researchers say they have finally found a way to convert the serious ecological issue into something equally useful and far less harmful. According to a study recently published in the journal Nature<\/a>, PVC can now be broken down and repurposed as a key ingredient for industrial lubricants.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, we have proved that it is feasible to use plastic waste to make high-performance lubricants,\u201d Guioliang \u201cGreg\u201d Liu<\/a>, a chemical engineer at Virginia Tech and study co-author, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cNumber two, these lubricants are green, and they can meet the emerging needs for sustainability by the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GraduateGraduate student Adrian DiMarco prepares a sample of engine oil created from upcycled plastic waste in Greg Liu\u2019s lab. Credit: Luke Hayes \/ Virginia Tech<\/a> <\/p>\n

To transform PVC, Liu\u2019s team places the plastic into a solvent along with chemical compounds like aluminum trichloride and alpha-olefins. That combination is then heated for three hours at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. The end result is a substantially thick oil, aka a lubricant.<\/p>\n

Liu said the idea came to his team because PVC is one of the most easily activated types of polyethylene. Theoretically, this means that the plastic should be easily convertible into other, more useful molecules after replacing their chlorine atoms. However, initial trials fell short of their goal. The resulting PVC goop was too soft, gooey, and unable to withstand the high performance needs of existing industrial lubricants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I realized\u2014if this polymer is so gooey and so soft, why don\u2019t I just keep breaking the polymer chains down to smaller segments that mimic lubricants?\u201d Liu recalled.<\/p>\n

After additional refinement, this new end product is a comparatively eco-friendly oil that may find its way into the next generation of industrial lubricants. Moving forward, the team is now working to make their invention even more sustainable, scalable, and affordable for general use.<\/p>\n

\u201cLubricants are the silent hero out there. We often don\u2019t recognize they exist, but they are out there working quietly,\u201d said Liu.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"2026\t\t\t<\/p>\n

2026 Popular Science Home of the Future Awards<\/p>\n

39 products that will improve your everyday life.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andrew Paul is a staff writer for Popular Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3749,246,61,60,3750,43,3751,82],"class_list":["post-585793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-chemistry","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-microplastics","tag-news","tag-recycling","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}