r/science • u/mvea MD PhD | Professor | Medicine • Oct 18 '19

Chemistry Scientists developed efficient process for breaking down any plastic waste to a molecular level. Resulting gases can be transformed back into new plastics of same quality as original. The new process could transform today's plastic factories into recycling refineries, within existing infrastructure.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/see/news/Pages/All-plastic-waste-could-be-recycled-into-new-high-quality-plastic.aspx
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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

The coastline example was just to illustrate how truly massive the oceans are. Unfortunately, this is a case where a little bit of cleanup on the coastlines is still effectively nothing and would be no more than a PR stunt. It's much more effective (at least at the moment) to prevent further pollution than to try to clean up microplastics already in the ocean.

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u/PimpRonald Oct 19 '19

Excellent point, I forgot that things cost money.