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Most plastic recycling produces low-value materials – but we’ve found a way to turn a common plastic into high-value molecules

Bales of plastic waste destined for recycling. Koron/Getty Images Susannah Scott, University of California Santa Barbara If you thought those flimsy disposable plastic grocery bags represented most of our plastic waste problem, think again. The volume of plastic the world throws away every year could rebuild the Ming Dynasty’s Great Wall of China – about 3,700 miles long. In the …

Evso/Shutterstock Dunzhu Li, Trinity College Dublin and Yunhong Shi, Trinity College Dublin Microplastics can now be found in almost every environment on Earth, but scientists know surprisingly little about how the products we use every day shed these tiny plastic particles. If you drink from a plastic water bottle or eat out of a microwaveable container today, there’s a good …