Chemical plastics recycling is ready to go

“It’s every chemical engineer’s dream to have a formula like this at hand for their process”

30-Aug-2024 - Scientists around the world can now go full throttle in their research into chemical plastics recycling. Researchers at ETH Zurich have laid important foundations for this by showing that it’s all about the stirring. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic waste are generated worldwide every ...

How micro- and nanoplastics are infiltrating the Arctic ice

Environmental scientist Alice Pradel cultivates ice cores in the lab to investigate the transport and accumulation of micro-​ and nanoplastics

26-Mar-2024 - “Beat the Microbead” is the name of a campaign launched in 2012 with the aim of reducing the use of microplastics in cosmetic products in order to minimise negative effects on the environment and people. For Alice Pradel, the campaign was a wake-​up call. “As a young environmental scientist, I ...

A wholly sustainable plastics economy is feasible

08-Mar-2023 - A new study shows what it will take for the plastics industry to become completely sustainable: lots of recycling combined with the use of CO2 from the air and biomass. It is also the image of plastics that need to change. Plastic is everywhere. Our society cannot do without it: plastics have ...

Accurately tracking how plastic biodegrades

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an approach to accurately record and fully track the biodegradation of plastics in soils

14-Oct-2022 - Modern agriculture uses a lot of plastic, especially in the form of mulch film that farmers use to cover field soils. This keeps the soils moist for crops, suppresses weeds and promotes crop growth. However, it is usually very time-​consuming and costly for farmers to collect and dispose of ...

Breaking down plastic into its constituent parts

First step towards genuine plastic recycling

25-Mar-2022 - A team of ETH researchers led by Athina Anastasaki have succeeded in breaking down plastic into its molecular building blocks and in recovering over 90 percent of them. A first step towards genuine plastic recycling. The chemical industry has a long tradition of producing polymers. This involves ...

Growing carbon footprint of plastics

07-Dec-2021 - After analysing the global plastics value chain, ETH researchers have revealed that the impact of plastics on climate and health is bigger than originally thought due to the increased use of coal for process heat, electricity and as a raw material in production. Global demand for them has ...

Worrying insights into the chemicals in plastics

More potentially hazardous chemicals are lurking in plastics than has been assumed

24-Jun-2021 - ETH Zurich researchers examined chemicals in plastics worldwide. They found an unexpectedly high number of substances of potential concern intentionally used in everyday plastic products. A lack of transparency limits management of these chemicals. Plastic is practical, cheap and incredibly ...

Nanoplastics – an underestimated problem?

Tiny plastic particles in the environment

06-May-2021 - The images leave no one cold: giant vortices of floating plastic trash in the world's oceans with sometimes devastating consequences for their inhabitants – the sobering legacy of our modern lifestyle. Weathering and degradation processes produce countless tiny particles that can now be detected ...

Biodegradable flip-flops coming soon

Innovative bio-​propellant from gas and water

29-Oct-2020 - Biodegradable plastics are very much on trend. But there are still very few sustainable alternatives for products containing foamed plastic. ETH Pioneer Fellow Zuzana Sediva is developing a process that could one day be used to make shoe soles and yoga mats from organic waste. Zuzana Sediva loves ...

Growing polymers with different lengths

How the dispersity of a plastic can be completely controlled by mixing two catalysts

25-Jun-2020 - ETH researchers have developed a new method for producing polymers with different lengths. This paves the way for new classes of polymer materials to be used in previously inconceivable applications. It is hard to imagine everyday life without materials made of synthetic polymers. Clothes, car ...