Pictured here, Guoliang Liu and Zhen Xu upcycled polystyrene waste by exposing it to UV light and adding an organic compound called dichloromethane to produce a valuable chemical called ...

Michael Timko, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, adds, "Our analysis finds polystyrene to be an ideal candidate for a chemical recycling process.

Polystyrene has been turned into a valuable chemical found in seaweed – by exposing it to sunlight. The indestructible plastic is found in everything from takeaway containers to TV packaging.

Polystyrene can be used once and thrown away, like with a coffee cup, or recycled back into new products over and over again. Regenyx prefers the second method. The Oregon company, a joint venture ...

Diphenylmethane is a chemical commonly used in fragrances and medicines. It is 10 times more valuable than polystyrene itself, so the conversion creates an economic incentive to reduce polystyrene ...

“Only the amount of benzene recovered from the polymer is converted into the desired chemical. Unused solvent can be recycled to process more polymer feed,” Liu says. As a proof of concept, the team ...

New polystyrene recycling process could be world's first to be both economical and energy-efficient Chemical method identified to tackle hard-to-recycle packaging material, cutting landfill waste ...

Polystyrene, the main material in plastic tableware and insulating materials, is a widely used polymer but is currently difficult to recycle. Reporting in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of US ...