Capturing carbon with plastic waste

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By ScienceAdviser. 

Excerpt: Polyethylene terephthalate or PET is one of the most widely used plastics, and therefore, a big contributor to plastic waste. But a team of researchers has an idea for how to beat the trash—and help tackle climate change at the same time. In a recent paper, they described a simple process that turns PET into bis-aminoamide (BAETA), a compound that chemically binds carbon dioxide (CO2), effectively pulling it from the air. “Any useful carbon capture material needs to be made in the millions of tons per year from cheap and abundant sources,” co-author Ji-Woong Lee told Chemical & Engineering News. “Plastic waste is a cheap and abundant source.” Lee and colleagues detailed how, simply by mixing PET with 1,2-ethylenediamine (EN) at 60°C for 24 hours or room temperature for 2 weeks, they could turn the plastic into CO2 -absorbing BAETA. ...“The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one,” lead author Margarita Poderyte said in a statement. “By turning waste into a raw material that can actively reduce greenhouse gases, we make an environmental issue part of the solution to the climate crisis.”... 

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