Scientists find a cheap way to recycle acrylic glass back into its original building blocks

Researchers at ETH Zurich have found a simple way to recycle acrylic glass, also known as Plexiglas. A single inexpensive chemical breaks the plastic down into its original building blocks, called monomers, and recovers up to 98 per cent of the material. The reaction starts at just over 200°C, about half the heat of earlier methods, and needs no solvents. It works with existing equipment, and the recovered material is pure enough to make new products of the same quality as new plastic. The study was published in Nature Chemistry. Good News Network's report on the work links to the university's own news release.