Ecological deterioration especially by plastics have as a result turned out to be one of the biggest challenges within the current society. As the carriers we use to carry our groceries or the containers that shield our foods from different elements, plastics have become part of almost everything we do in our daily lives. However, like any service that makes things easier for you, it does not come free. Littering with plastics, pollutes the soil, water bodies including the seas and has very negative impacts to the lives of aquatic animals. However, most forms of plastics, including post-industrial and post-consumer plastics, find their way into landfills or incinerators through conventional recycling. This is where chemical recycling can provide the much-needed change by cooking plastics and recovering valuable resources for use in the creation of new products forming the foundation for a circular economy.
The Problem of Plastic Waste
Therefore, to give some perspective before we delve deeper into chemical recycling, let’s take a look at the size 
of the plastic waste issue. More seafood by value or weight may be composed of plastics than fish by 2050 according to the World Economic Forum. Still, it also acknowledged that some of the most dangerous types of plastic are stirs, cups, and packaging material designed for one-time use. They are intended for a short-term application but are deployed in the environment for up to 200 years.
All kinds of plastic wastes turn out to have a number of impacts on the environment. People and wildlife as well can be affected, marine life in particular, will find a piece of plastic looking like any of its regular food items, which in the end may
harm or even kill it. Also, when plastics reach their decomposition stage of micro plastics, they are absorbed into the food chain-interface ranging from fish to the freshwater human drinking water.
Recycling procedures which are utilized commonly proved to be quite useful but are confined to handle various kinds of plastic waste.
The former and most prevalent form involves collecting, sorting, washing and remelting of plastics to produce new products. However, this process has the following drawbacks. Only selected types of plastics can be recycled, and the quality of the resulting recycled plastic diminishes with time. Some of the plastics for instance multi-layer packaging and those that are contaminated cannot go through the normal route of being recycled mechanically. This is why chemical recycling can step in and help out, it accomplishes a similar task yet is not an inferior process in any way.
What is Chemical Recycling?
The actual term chemical recycling comprises a series of technologies that are considered to recycle plastic waste through its depolymerization, that is to say, the molecules comprising the material are dissected to create new
ones that can be used to make new plastics or valuable products. Chemical recycling differs from mechanical one, it is not for instance turning plastics into pellets so as to make new shapes. There’s a change in the chemical constitution of the plastic and breaks it back to the individual units known as monomers. These monomers can then be reassembled into new high quality plastic material or any other useful chemicals.
This creative process make it possible to recycle more types of plastic, especially those that cannot be recycled mechanically, for instance contaminated or composite types of plastics. It also provides a remedy for end-of-life mechanical recycled plastics that are no longer reusable due to decline in quality.
Types of Chemical Recycling Processes
There are several different methods of chemical recycling, each with its unique process for breaking down plastic waste:
a. Pyrolysis: On the basis of the recycling mechanism, the chemical recycling can be divided into the following types: At the moment they encompass: pyrolysis, hydrolysis, solvolysis and methanolysis. There is the process of massively heating the plastic waste with minimum involvement of oxygen to split it into molecules by-products like oil, gases and char. The products formed can be burnt to produce energy or vice versa be recycled to other raw materials to manufacture plastics. Pyrolysis is also effective with plastics that are difficult to recycle by mechanical methods hence it can be used in recycling of plastics such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
b. Gasification: The process known as gasification involves denying the plastic waste oxygen at the same time exposing it to high temperatures. It transforms the plastic into syngas, a gas composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen for the most part. Syngas can be utilized for energy purposes or can be further converted into new products as ethanol and methanol. It is most suitable for conversion of various type of plastics especially those that are mixed with food or any other substance.
c. Depolymerization: An example of recycling is depolymerisation process, which is the breaking of polymers (the major units that constitute plastics) into their monomers. This makes it possible to develop new plastics with identical characteristics to virgin material without the usual loss of efficiency in mechanical recycling. Another reason depolymerization is useful is because it is appropriate for recycling polyethylene terephthalate also known as PET a product reliant on drinks bottles and packaging.
d. Solvent-Based Recycling: In solvent-based recycling, polymers used in plastics are dissolved in solvent to filter out such components such as food residues or ink. The cleaned polymers can then be used to precipitate out of solution and are used again to manufacture more plastics. It turns out effective for deplored plastics, which might not readily be reused in other production lines otherwise.
Benefits of Chemical Recycling
Chemical recycling is one mechanism that presents several advantages that can make a solution for global plastic waste. Some of the key advantages include:
1. Ability to Recycle a Wider Range of Plastics: Mechanical recycling has been christened a rather limited technique because it only allows specific plastics to be recycled. Chemical recycling on the other hand can take a much broader range of feedstock, it can take plastic waste that is contaminated or mis-sorted or multi-layered. This means that a higher percentage of plastics received an appropriate treatment so that they are not likely to end up in dumps or be burned.
2. Production of High-Quality Plastics: Chemical recycling is different from mechanical recycling in which over time reduces the standard of the plastic used. This makes it possible to formulate new plastics that are as good as virgin material for use in higher performance applications including packaging of foodstuffs or manufacturing of medical equipments.
3. Supports a Circular Economy: Chemical recycling takes its role to contribute to the circular economy model for plastics for recycling of materials to go around in circles. It is an important feature of circular economy wherein resources are utilized and recycled and not disposed after once use. Chemical recycling of plastics not only reinvents the used plastic waste as usable commodities but also helps to curb exploitation of natural resources for formation of new fossil based plastics.
4. Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Synthetic or plastic production is also one of the significant sources of greenhouse gas emission since it has implicates that involve the use of fossil fuel. Thus, saving plastics instead of creating new ones – chemical recycling is essential in preventing an excess of carbon emissions from the plastic industry. Also, in chemical recycling like the gasification processes, the generated syngas can be used as a cleaner type of energy.
Challenges and Limitations
Chemical recycling is yet a promising way, but it has its limitations. The technology is comparatively nascent, and there are a number of obstacles that have to be passed prior to its mainstream employment.
a. High Costs and Energy Requirements: Most chemical recycling processes consume much energy, and this makes them costly compared to most other methods of recycling. This is more evident in pyrolysis and gasification where minerals are utilized commonly to provide heat to break a plastic. However, to make these processes more efficient and economical there is constant research and development currently going on.
b. Limited Infrastructure: Currently, there are few if any chemical recycling facilities that are in operation globally. Chemical recycling will take much greater investments through new plants, while the classifying of chemical waste for collecting between frugal and expensive materials will also be needed.
c. Quality Control: Quality assurance of products synthesized through chemical recycling can be a problem; especially when undertaking the recycling of contaminated plastic waste streams. Dirty vessels food residue, inks, and other additives may get into the final chemical or fuel thus degrading the quality of these products. Therefore, preliminary sorting and washing of the collected plastic waste remain crucial tasks for achieving a high quality of output..
d. Environmental Concerns: However, the processes of chemical recycling themselves should also not release some toxic byproducts into the environment because these processes do assist in reducing the rates of accumulation of plastic wastes in the landfills and incinerators. Pyrolysis type of chemical recycling in particular results in the formation of gases and liquids which should be discharged in an environmentally manner.
Conclusion
The idea of chemical recycling is identified as a solution to tackling the issue, with an added potential of converting plastics wastes into valuable materials. Compared to other recycling strategies, chemical recycling is capable of recycling more types of plastics, output higher quality materials and cater for closed-loop recycling economy. However, the serious obstacles which are present in modern world, including high costs, lack of infrastructures for this technology and the negative impacts on environment have to be solved to achieve the overall potential of this technology.
While hoping for a brighter future, chemical recycling remains an ambitious direction in exploration and innovation in the reduction of the world’s pollution with plastics. But with the proper investment in technology, infrastructure and policies, chemical recycling can change the narrative with plastic waste from being the biggest environmental challenge to the world, to a precursor of a new sustainable economy.
