Green News: Chemical recycling of polyethylene, and wax moths

 

 

New ways to recycle high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are emerging, at low energy cost. Chemists in the US have developed ways to break HDPE into monomers that can be re-polymerized as new plastics with properties similar to polyethylene.

 

Mother Nature, however, is already in on the action. Saliva from the larvae of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, contains enzymes that break HDPE into shorter chains.

 

Read more about chemical recycling: http://ms.spr.ly/61213e45UB

 

Read more about the wax moth: http://ms.spr.ly/61214e45U8