The rate of plastics production is currently higher than 400 million metric tons per year and is predicted to reach 700 million metric tons by 2030. 25% of plastic waste is incinerated and 20% is recycled, mostly by mechanical processes, resulting in downcycled or reduced value polymers. The rest is discarded into landfills and oceans, posing an environmental hazard. A promising approach to overcome the waste plastic problem and reach a “circular economy of plastics” is catalytic polymer upcycling, consisting in chemically converting waste plastics into fuels and/or value-added molecules. The current session welcomes any work targeting catalytic conversion of waste plastics to upgraded products.

Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division