Start-up devours pollution with new plastic recycling method

By Dilip -
Our appetite for plastic continues unabated. But rather than make more, what if we could make do with what we have? Recycling plastic has been a stop-start endeavor, plagued by limitations caused by the large variety of plastics we churn out, waste contamination, and the energy-intensive processes which can make recycling an economic moot point. It's estimated only 9% of plastic ever created has been recycled. But with the help of a chemical process, Canadian Miranda Wang and her company BioCellection want to change that.

Call to Earth and the extraordinary people working for a more sustainable future
Anna Fletcher: Indian student creates a brick made from recycled plastic

Unmaking plastic is tough. There's limited evidence some plastics can biodegrade (one solution requires mealworms) but largely plastics photodegrade in the sun. It's a lengthy process, and the truth is we can only estimate how long it takes. What's certain is that plastic is outliving millions of birds dying with stomachs filled with detritus, or ocean life consuming microplastics flowing up the food chain -- all the way to us. With 8 million metric tons of plastic finding its way into the oceans every year and millions more piling up in landfill, recycling is of vital importance.

Wang is looking to break the inertia by making it cheaper to recycle plastic -- and not just some plastics, but all. BioCellection's mission to "make plastic waste infinitely recyclable," says Wang. "We live in a plastic age, and we can't avoid that material... (But) frankly our world hasn't been moving forward in innovating plastic recycling for the past decades.".... 
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/09/world/miranda-wang-tomorrows-hero/index.html

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