Focus on plastics

Plastics have profoundly changed what is possible in modern society. But between their reliance on fossil fuels and their massive accumulation as waste, plastics are also at the heart of a dual environmental crisis.

The positive benefits afforded by the widespread use of plastics need to be reconciled with negative impacts on the environment and health across the entire plastics life cycle. Optimizing the balance in several facets of plastics production, use and waste management is necessary for a more sustainable relationship with these materials in the Anthropocene.

Chemistry plays a determining role in every stage of the plastic life cycle. We reflect on the challenges and limitations of plastics — their sheer abundance, chemodiversity and imperfect recoverability leading to loss of material — and on the need for chemical and non-chemical approaches to overcome them.

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) has formulated five early warning signs to be considered by regulators when it comes to materials and substances. These warning signs reflect many concerns raised about plastics and are thus worth considering during the design and regulation of new and established polymeric materials.

Environmentally benign and sustainable chemistry has the potential to address negative environmental impacts associated with the production and degradation of synthetic polymers. In particular, green synthesis of plastics could be achieved by the convergence of visible-light-driven photocatalysis and reversible-deactivation radical polymerization.

Bio-based polymers that exhibit superior performance relative to petroleum-based incumbents can encourage industry adoption and offset fossil carbon use. This Review introduces performance-advantaged, bio-based polymers and highlights examples wherein superior performance is facilitated by the inherent chemical functionality of bio-based feedstocks.

Plastic debris continues to contaminate the environment, negatively impacting wildlife and ecosystems. This Review argues that polymer selection and product design must incorporate strategies for end-of-life management and strive to eliminate, or at least minimize, environmental persistence of plastic materials.

Plastics support modern life but are also associated with environmental pollution. This Review discusses technologies for the production and recycling of bioplastics as part of a more sustainable and circular economy.

Microplastic is a complex contaminant causing great concern in society. This Review examines the properties of microplastic particles compared with natural particles in the environment and discusses methods of assessing the risks to humans and the environment.

The materials community must address the greenhouse gas emissions burden of materials production. This Review assesses the potential for decarbonization of the cement, metals and petrochemical industries, revealing opportunities to strengthen the connections across industries and length scales — from the atomic scale through to materials markets — to meet climate targets.

Polymer materials that can reorganize over time or under specific conditions have enormous advantages over static polymer networks. This Review discusses the many classes of molecular bonding motifs used to introduce dynamicity to polymer materials and outlines the design rules for engineering the interaction timescales for desired applications.

An article in Advanced Materials reports an environmentally friendly hybrid mineral that presents the same flexibility and moldability as traditional plastics.

An article in Advanced Functional Materials reports a fully edible, strong and plastic-free straw based on bacterial cellulose.

An article in Nature Nanotechnology presents a method to track the uptake and transport of plastic nanoparticles in crop plants.

An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reports a method to exploit the stereochemical differences between two sugar-based monomers to fabricate a family of plastic-like materials with a range of degradation and mechanical properties.

An article in Nature Sustainability reports the use of a common plastic, polyethylene, to make fabrics that have a low environmental footprint and are cheap and recyclable.

The molecular structure of polyesters enables plastics that are bio-based, biodegradable, and readily recyclable.