New method of recycling coloured plastics offers possible solution to ’huge environmental challenge’, scientists claim

A new method for recycling coloured plastics has been developed by scientists at Cardiff University. The process, which breaks down coloured polymers, the principal component of plastics, into their original components, could lead to a circular plastic recycling economy reducing pollution on land and in our oceans, the researchers claim. Widely used in drinks bottles, food packaging, clothing and electronics, coloured plastics can be melted down and remoulded into new products, but additives or colourants cannot be removed in current recycling processes. To avoid this method of downcycling, where recycled plastic is of lower quality than the original material, the Cardiff team used a chemical process called depolymerisation. Dr Ben Ward, Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Cardiff University, said: "Our current recycling economy only allows plastics and polymers to be recycled a finite number of times, after which they go to landfill or are incinerated. This is a huge environmental challenge. "It is also a problem for industry who want to reuse and recycle coloured polymers but are limited by additives which affect the quality and colour of recycled products.