B.K. Sharma – senior research engineer, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (left) and Sriraam R. Chandrasekaran, lead research engineer. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
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A report recently released by the Center for the Circular Economy, a project of Closed Loop Partners, surveys current landscape of research focused on converting waste plastics into safe and high-quality materials, as well as the scale of opportunity for these technologies to meet demand.
The work of ISTC researchers BK Sharma and Sriraam Chandrasekaran are included in the report’s technology profiles appendix. They recently developed a nontoxic, nondestructive and energy-efficient chemical solvent process to recover polymers from the complex plastic blends found in electronic waste. They published their results in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. The research was funded by HOBI International and the Hazardous Waste Research Fund.
The report strongly encourages stakeholders to invest in new technologies related to plastics recycling, an area with potential revenue opportunities of $120 billion just in North America .