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Modern chemistry is rubbish

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 7, pages 593–594 (2023)Cite this article

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To combat worsening environmental crises, chemistry needs a redesign. We see the need for a triple focus on efficiency, safety and circularity as a prerequisite for chemistry to serve sustainability and ensure that essential chemical products and processes are waste-free, functional and safe for both humans and the environment.

Climate change, energy crisis, resource scarcity, biodiversity collapse, not to mention a global pandemic; you may rightfully conclude that modern life is rubbish. In view of mounting environmental pollution with waste chemicals and their impacts, from ozone depletion to biodiversity loss1, one might also say modern chemistry is rubbish. Since the Industrial Revolution, we have adopted a strong habit of exploiting finite resources and converting them into useful products following a linear ‘take–make–dispose’ approach. Chemical manufacturing processes and technological advances have created ample chemical waste both during and after production, which has resulted in human health problems and environmental disasters at different scales2. Chemistry is searching for creative, often complex, ways to facilitate the path of matter from extraction to pollution in the form of chemicals. In this sense, modern chemistry is, quite literally, rubbish. In the past 25 years, however, the principles of green chemistry have spurred — in both academia and industry — the design of chemical products and processes minimizing or even eliminating the use of hazardous substances and waste3,4. More and more sustainable synthetic methods for the creation of molecules and materials are nowadays available. But are we there yet? Not at all!

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Fig. 1: The future of chemistry.

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  1. Van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Research Priority Area Sustainable Chemistry, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Hannah Flerlage & J. Chris Slootweg

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  1. Hannah Flerlage
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  2. J. Chris Slootweg
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Correspondence to J. Chris Slootweg.

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Flerlage, H., Slootweg, J.C. Modern chemistry is rubbish. Nat Rev Chem 7, 593–594 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00523-9

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