MacLeod, M., Arp, H. P. H., Tekman, M. B. & Jahnke, A. The global threat from plastic pollution. Science 373, 61–65 (2021).
Jehanno, C. et al. Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers. Nature 603, 803–814 (2022).
Sullivan, K. P. et al. Mixed plastics waste valorization through tandem chemical oxidation and biological funneling. Science 378, 207–211 (2022).
Plastics—the fast facts 2023. Plastics Europe https://plasticseurope.org/knowledge-hub/plastics-the-fast-facts-2023/ (2023).
Martín, A. J., Mondelli, C., Jaydev, S. D. & Pérez-Ramírez, J. Catalytic processing of plastic waste on the rise. Chem 7, 1487–1533 (2021).
Peplow, M. Can this revolutionary plastics-recycling plant help solve the pollution crisis? Nature 638, 22–25 (2025).
Lubongo, C., Bin Daej, M. A. A. & Alexandridis, P. Recent developments in technology for sorting plastic for recycling: the emergence of artificial intelligence and the rise of the robots. Recycling 9, 59 (2024).
Cao, R. et al. Co-upcycling of polyvinyl chloride and polyesters. Nat. Sustain. 6, 1685–1692 (2023).
Kots, P. A., Vance, B. C., Quinn, C. M., Wang, C. & Vlachos, D. G. A two-stage strategy for upcycling chlorine-contaminated plastic waste. Nat. Sustain. 6, 1258–1267 (2023).
Westhues, S., Idel, J. & Klankermayer, J. Molecular catalyst systems as key enablers for tailored polyesters and polycarbonate recycling concepts. Sci. Adv. 4, eaat9669 (2018).
Jehanno, C. et al. Selective chemical upcycling of mixed plastics guided by a thermally stable organocatalyst. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 6710–6717 (2021).
Yang, R., Xu, G., Dong, B., Guo, X. & Wang, Q. Selective, sequential, and “one-pot” depolymerization strategies for chemical recycling of commercial plastics and mixed plastics. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 10, 9860–9871 (2022).
Arifuzzaman, M. et al. Selective deconstruction of mixed plastics by a tailored organocatalyst. Mater. Horiz. 10, 3360–3368 (2023).
Jing, Y. et al. Towards the circular economy: converting aromatic plastic waste back to arenes over a Ru/Nb2O5 catalyst. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 133, 5587–5595 (2021).
Wei, J. et al. Hydrodeoxygenation of oxygen‐containing aromatic plastic wastes to liquid organic hydrogen carriers. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 62, e202310505 (2023).
Gartzen Lopez, et al. Recent advances in the gasification of waste plastics. A critical overview. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 82, 576–596 (2018).
Onur Dogu, et al. The chemistry of chemical recycling of solid plastic waste via pyrolysis and gasification: state-of-the-art, challenges, and future directions. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 84, 100901 (2021).
Wang, M. et al. Complete hydrogenolysis of mixed plastic wastes. Nat. Chem. Eng. 1, 376–384 (2024).
Lohr, T. L. & Marks, T. J. Orthogonal tandem catalysis. Nat. Chem. 7, 477–482 (2015).
Pretsch, E., Bühlmann, P. & Badertscher, M. Structure Determination of Organic Compounds (Springer, 2020).
Weng, Y., Hong, C.-B., Zhang, Y. & Liu, H. Catalytic depolymerization of polyester plastics toward closed-loop recycling and upcycling. Green Chem. 26, 571–592 (2024).
Yeung, C. W. S., Teo, J. Y. Q., Loh, X. J. & Lim, J. Y. C. Polyolefins and polystyrene as chemical resources for a sustainable future: challenges, advances, and prospects. ACS Mater. Lett. 3, 1660–1676 (2021).
Xu, S. et al. Upcycling chlorinated waste plastics. Nat. Rev. Methods Primers 3, 44 (2023).
Cao, R. et al. Catalytic oxidation of polystyrene to aromatic oxygenates over a graphitic carbon nitride catalyst. Nat. Commun. 13, 4809 (2022).
Tian, S. et al. Catalytic amination of polylactic acid to alanine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 16358–16363 (2021).
Tian, S. et al. Heterogeneous catalytic dehydrogenative coupling of ethylene glycol and primary alcohols into α-hydroxycarboxylic acids. Sci. China Chem. 66, 2583–2589 (2023).
Gan, L. et al. Beyond conventional degradation: catalytic solutions for polyolefin upcycling. CCS Chem. 6, 313–333 (2024).
Walker, T. W. et al. Recycling of multilayer plastic packaging materials by solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation. Sci. Adv. 6, eaba7599 (2020).
Miller-Chou, B. A. & Koenig, J. L. A review of polymer dissolution. Prog. Polym. Sci. 28, 1223–1270 (2003).
Liu, S., Kots, P. A., Vance, B. C., Danielson, A. & Vlachos, D. G. Plastic waste to fuels by hydrocracking at mild conditions. Sci. Adv. 7, eabf8283 (2021).
Wu, X. et al. Polyethylene upgrading to liquid fuels boosted by atomic Ce promoters. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63, e202317594 (2024).
Tennakoon, A. et al. Catalytic upcycling of high-density polyethylene via a processive mechanism. Nat. Catal. 3, 893–901 (2020).
Jaydev, S. D., Martín, A. J. & Pérez-Ramírez, J. Direct conversion of polypropylene into liquid hydrocarbons on carbon-supported platinum catalysts. ChemSusChem 14, 5179–5185 (2021).
Chen, L. et al. Disordered, sub-nanometer Ru structures on CeO2 are highly efficient and selective catalysts in polymer upcycling by hydrogenolysis. ACS Catal. 12, 4618–4627 (2022).
Kots, P. A. et al. Electronic modulation of metal-support interactions improves polypropylene hydrogenolysis over ruthenium catalysts. Nat. Commun. 13, 5186 (2022).
Tamura, M. et al. Structure–activity relationship in hydrogenolysis of polyolefins over Ru/support catalysts. Appl. Catal. B 318, 121870 (2022).
Wu, X. et al. Size-controlled nanoparticles embedded in a mesoporous architecture leading to efficient and selective hydrogenolysis of polyolefins. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 144, 5323–5334 (2022).
Sun, M. et al. Efficient upgrading of polyolefin plastics into C5–C12 gasoline alkanes over a Pt/W/Beta catalyst. Sustain. Energy Fuels 6, 271–275 (2022).
Engels, H. W. et al. Polyurethanes: versatile materials and sustainable problem solvers for today’s challenges. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 9422–9441 (2013).
Wang, H. S. et al. Visible light-triggered depolymerization of commercial polymethacrylates. Science 387, 874–880 (2025).
Conk, R. J. et al. Catalytic deconstruction of waste polyethylene with ethylene to form propylene. Science 377, 1561–1566 (2022).
Li, H. et al. Hydroformylation of pyrolysis oils to aldehydes and alcohols from polyolefin waste. Science 381, 660–666 (2023).
Xu, Z. et al. Chemical upcycling of polyethylene, polypropylene, and mixtures to high-value surfactants. Science 381, 666–671 (2023).
Zhang, W. et al. Low-temperature upcycling of polyolefins into liquid alkanes via tandem cracking-alkylation. Science 379, 807–811 (2023).
Conk, R. J. et al. Polyolefin waste to light olefins with ethylene and base-metal heterogeneous catalysts. Science 385, 1322–1327 (2024).
Tournier, V. et al. An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles. Nature 580, 216–219 (2020).
Lu, H. et al. Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization. Nature 604, 662–667 (2022).
Fagnani, D. E., Kim, D., Camarero, S. I., Alfaro, J. F. & McNeil, A. J. Using waste poly(vinyl chloride) to synthesize chloroarenes by plasticizer-mediated electro(de)chlorination. Nat. Chem. 15, 222–229 (2023).
Morado, E. G. et al. End-of-life upcycling of polyurethanes using a room temperature, mechanism-based degradation. Nat. Chem. 15, 569–577 (2023).
Chu, M. et al. Layered double hydroxide derivatives for polyolefin upcycling. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 146, 10655–10665 (2024).