Many MindedLight and a chlorinated solvent turn bag and bottle plastic into strong glue
A team led by ETH Zurich polymer chemist Tae-Lim Choi has developed a way to turn common polyolefin waste, the plastic in bags and bottles, into industrial-strength adhesive. Hongsik Kim led development of the method. The work appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2026).
Polyolefins, mainly polyethylene and polypropylene, account for roughly half of all plastic consumption, in packaging and films among other uses. Of about 450 million metric tons of plastic made each year, most is used once and then incinerated or landfilled. Melting and recasting degrades polyolefins, so they end up in low-grade items like plant pots and paving slabs. Breaking them into monomers is not currently possible; the only feasible route is energy-intensive pyrolysis, which gives petroleum-based feedstocks.
The new process dissolves the waste in a chlorinated solvent and adds monomers in a single step. Short-wavelength light turns the solvent into chlorine radicals, which create reactive sites on the polyolefin chains where new chains grow. It needs no expensive special reagents or catalysts and no high temperatures. The resulting adhesive meets requirements for load-bearing joints on metal, glass and wood. A 13 mg sample lifted a 20 kg kettlebell, and the adhesive held an adult of about 80 kg.
This matters because it gives waste plastic a market. If discarded packaging is worth more as an input than as trash, there is a reason to collect it, and less goes to landfill or incineration.
The caveats are real. Choi calls the adhesive a first-generation product, and other uses are conceivable, not demonstrated. The process relies on chlorinated solvents. No cost figures or scale-up data beyond a large-scale lab synthesis are given. ETH has patented the method, and talks with industry, including on food packaging, are under discussion with no results reported.
Source: Phys.org