Depolymerization Strategies
Valorizing Commercial
Thermoplastic Polyesters: Perspective Proposing Efficient and Convenient
Chemical Recycling and Upcycling
Aug 2026· Chem & Bio Engineering· 0 citations· 133 references
Abstract
Commercial thermoplastic materials are used across several material fields, which increasingly employ recycling pathways in their production to reduce waste, minimize environmental impact, and reprocess their products to lower overall costs. Mechanical recycling and circular reprocessing within the unified polymer production are the most optimal circular solutions, achieving the sustainable demands of modern society. This work focuses on chemical recycling and upcycling opportunities, employing complex, heterogeneous, and substantially impure mixtures of plastic waste or multicomponent systems that cannot be reprocessed and used directly. Three major and most widely applied depolymerization strategies at the industrial scale were discussed: hydrolysis (acidic/alkaline), alcoholysis (also known as transesterification), and aminolysis. The main aim is to summarize the essential positive and negative factors regarding each chemical approach. The future applications of the upcycled products are introduced, and the quality and overall utility of the chemically recycled thermoplastic macromolecular compounds are meticulously evaluated.
Polyurethane (PU) is a non-biodegradable thermoset plastic and a persistent waste burden with an annual production of around 26 million tonnes. Conventional disposal routes squander valuable resources and generate greenhouse gas emissions. Though chemical recycling offers a sustainable reuse route by depolymerizing P...
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The rapid growth of the polymer industry has driven the widespread application of polyester plastics, especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, the nonbiodegradability of waste PET poses persistent threats to ecosystems. Conventional mechanical recycling struggles to achieve closed-loop material circulation...
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The growing stock of post-consumer waste polycarbonate (PC) causes severe environmental pressure and resource loss, whereas conventional mechanical recycling, landfilling and incineration suffer from material deterioration and secondary pollution. Chemical catalytic recycling enables selective carbonate-ester-bond clea...
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Tackling plastic waste has garnered growing attention in recent years, spurring intensified research into plastic depolymerization. Among various plastics, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) stands out as the most widely recycled. Although several depolymerization methods have been reported, many still rely on high tem...
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