Plastic reincarnation as a solution for plastic pollution

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About the research 

Less than 10%... That's how much of all the plastic is recycled today. The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills or -worse- in our oceans... The problem is that with current recycling methods, the quality of the plastic decreases with each recycling cycle. So is there no method to recycle plastic repeatedly without losing quality? There is: chemical recycling, aka the 'reincarnation' of plastic. Annelore Aerts (VITO) explains how that works. 

Environment
Annelore Aerts
VITO

Plastic waste is omnipresent; this pollution poses a significant threat to our environment. Her love for nature combined with her chemical engineering background motivates Annelore Aerts to tackle this problem at the molecular level. As a postdoctoral researcher in VITO's SPOT team, she is developing new chemical methods to selectively break down mixed plastics and reuse them in new sustainable materials. In doing so, she hopes to contribute to a more sustainable future.

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