Plastic Waste Valorization by Leveraging Multidisciplinary Catalytic Technologies

Plastic waste triggers a series of concerns because of its disruptive impact on the environment and ecosystem. From the point of view of catalysis, however, end-of-life plastics can be seen as an untapped feedstock for the preparation of value-added products. Thus, the development of diversified catalytic approaches for plastics valorization is urgent. Previous reviews of this field have systematically summarized progress made for plastic reclamation. In this review, we emphasize the design of processes by leveraging state-of-the-art technologies from other developed fields to derive a series of valuable polymers, functional materials, and chemicals from waste plastics. The principles, mechanisms, and opportunities for plastic valorization by leveraging chemical catalytic technologies (thermo-, electro-, and photocatalytic) as well as biocatalytic ones are summarized and discussed, which may provide more insights for the future design of catalytic processes. Finally, the outlooks and perspectives to accelerate progress toward a feasible plastic economy are discussed.