US researchers developed a method to depolymerise commodity plastics PP and PET without a catalyst. To do so, they use a layered system with pulsed electric heating. They published their results in Nature.

Plastic waste is a global problem. Most plastic waste is incinerated or landfilled, which has obvious drawbacks. Incineration releases CO₂ and landfill pollutes the environment. Ideally, plastic waste would be broken down into monomers and turned into new plastics. Unfortunately, depolymerising bulk plastics is rather difficult to achieve, because the reaction is hard to control. Catalysts can improve selectivity, but can suffer from performance degradation.