Plastic was designed to last, and it has delivered on that promise a little too well. After decades of treating packaging, ...

"Controlling the rate at which polymers break down is essential." Scientists create programmable plastic with ability to self ...

With conventional waste management systems falling short, many scientists are turning to nature for innovative solutions to the issue of plastic waste. One promising avenue is microbial degradation: ...

Yuwei Gu was hiking through Bear Mountain State Park in New York when inspiration struck. Plastic bottles littered the trail ...

Unlike their mid-century ancestors, today's plastics are being reimagined through ultra-thin layering at the molecular level.

In what could form the basis of petroleum-free plastics that are both entirely recyclable and biodegradable, chemists have found a polymer that can be synthesized into useful materials and then broken ...

Getting rid of plastic waste remains a Sisyphean task despite our efforts to tackle it by employing PET-eating bacteria and turning it into footwear, liquid fuel, and even the foundations for an ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic end up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials scientists ...

Polymer Center and Blue Polymers facilities are designed to produce 175 million pounds of recycled plastics annually for sustainable packaging and other uses INDIANAPOLIS, March 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ ...

Polymers, defined as macromolecules composed of repeating chemical units or monomers, are the foundational building blocks of plastics – a class of versatile materials that have revolutionised ...

Rutgers scientists have developed plastics that can be programmed to break down at specific rates by drawing on a natural principle. Their approach could provide a meaningful new way to tackle the ...

A polymer is a chemical compound that contains a large number of identical molecular repeating units. A plastic material is a polymer, typically modified with additives, which can be molded or shaped ...