Aqu‐Thermoplastics: Recycling Plastics with Water

Abstract Recycling of real waste plastics with diverse composition is extremely difficult. Herein, an eco‐friendly and easy‐to‐operate strategy is demonstrated to facilitate the recycling of plastic composites and mixtures by using only water. An aqu‐thermoplastic bioplastic (CPp‐TA) is constructed with switchable water solubility and excellent thermoplastic property from natural cellulose. CPp‐TA consisted of the cellulose main chain (C) and two functional groups, internal‐plasticizing group (Pp) and switchable group (TA). It not only has outstanding thermo‐plastic formability, water resistance, and mechanical property to satisfy the daily needs, but also can be easily recycled with water by switching to the water‐soluble state. CPp‐TA can processed into various high‐performance plastic parts, fibers, heat‐sealing packaging, transparent cups, paper‐plastic composites, and aluminum‐plastic composites by conventional thermoplastic processing methods. The obtained CPp‐TA/Al/paper composite exhibits better barrier performance than the famous Tetra Pak with a complex recycling process, and can be easily separated into CPp‐TA, Al foil, and paper by using basic aqueous solution to trigger the water solubility of CPp‐TA. Similarly, CPp‐TA can be effectively separated from plastic mixtures. The recovery yield achieves to 100%. The revolutionary aqu‐thermoplastic materials and water‐recycling strategy markedly reduce the recycling difficulty of intricate plastics and promote the sustainable development.