U.S. Develops Recycled Plastic Raw Materials

MIT has developed a new type of plastic that can be recycled and reshaped under room temperature and standard manufacturing pressures, providing a new way to solve the “white pollution” problem.

Some of the currently used plastic products must be fully softened when heated to 200°C or higher. This method not only consumes a large amount of energy and brings about certain environmental pollution, but also destroys the polymer molecular chains of plastics, reduces the strength of plastics, and makes it impossible to recycle. And MIT Messrs. Anne Mess and others used a mixture of more rigid polystyrene and another softer plastic to develop a new type of material that was treated to soften into something that could be Molded into various shapes of transparent plastic, and after repeated use 10 times, its toughness and strength remain unchanged.