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Plastic degradation refers to the process of breaking down plastic materials into simpler or smaller components to reduce their environmental impact. Methods to decompose plastic material include mechanical breakdown, chemical recycling, and biodegradation. Mechanical degradation and chemical recycling aim to produce smaller particles and simpler chemical structures that can be reused to produce new material. Alternatively, biodegradation of plastics by enzymes produced by microorganisms ideally results in the metabolization of the materials; research efforts to advance this field aim to increase the effectiveness of these enzymes.
This Collection aims to attract original research that develops or employs methods to break down and recycle plastic materials by mechanical, chemical, or biological means.