Advances and Approaches for Chemical Recycling of Plastic Waste

There is the ever-increasing plastics waste leading to serious environmental and economic challenges, which need to be addressed through sustainable recycling solutions. The quality of the recycled plastics is limited due to the degradation of the polymer and contamination in traditional mechanical recycling approaches. New chemical recycling technology is an alternative which allows the depolymerization of plastic down to the practical monomer, recovering it in high purity and offering closed loop recycling. The focus of this review is on the integration of pyrolysis methods in the area of chemical recycling which mainly provides means of enhancing the management of plastic waste. Furthermore, the environmental and economic impacts of chemical recycling are evaluated based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study and compared to the mechanical recycling as well as landfill disposal. However, its promise is yet to be widely adopted due to many challenges including high energy consumption, process scalability, economic feasibility, etc. Future research should aim towards finding ways to optimise catalyst efficiency, reduce operational costs and also integration of chemical recycling within the framework of the circular economy. Chemical recycling technologies should play a strategic role in reducing the global plastic waste crisis and their large-scale implementation will be crucial and need to be facilitated by strategic policy interventions and industrial collaborations.