Solar Powered Plastic Makeover: A Greener Way to Recycle Tough Plastics

Trying to recycle waste polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics is tough because it can create hazardous stuff, like polychlorinated biphenyls. Researchers have come up with a cool new way to fix this issue. They use sunlight to heat up and convert PVC plastics into useful carbon materials. This process is called photothermal dechlorination-carbonization. By crunching the numbers, they found that using solar power for this method can save a lot of energy and reduce pollution. We're talking about saving enough electricity to power around 60, 000 homes for a year and cutting down on carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 55, 000 cars off the road! The best part? This method works with many different types of used and mixed PVC plastics. The carbon materials made from this process can even be used to make better batteries for things like electric cars or phones. This solar recycling method is a big step towards a greener and cleaner future.