Nearly 90% of U.S plastic waste ends up in landfills. But there’s a potential solution. Table salt outperforms other expensive catalysts being explored for the chemical recycling of polyolefin polymers, which account for 60% of plastic waste. It could provide a safe, inexpensive and reusable way to make plastics more recyclable. Table salt and other catalysts could be used in recycling metallized plastic films–like those used in potato chip bags–currently not recyclable.
msutoday.msu.edu/news/2023/table-salt-could-be-secret-ingredient-for-better-recycling