Chemists at Cornell University have discovered a way to use light and oxygen to upcycle polystyrene—a type of plastic found in many common items—into benzoic acid, a product stocked in undergraduate ...

This startling mechanism for promoting depolymerization relies on an additive that many plastics already contain: a pigment called carbon black that gives plastic its black color. Through a process ...

Researchers have shown that a common plastic additive called carbon black can depolymerize polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), two of the least recycled plastics in the planet’s waste stream It ...

Chemists have discovered a way to use light and oxygen to upcycle polystyrene -- a type of plastic found in many common items -- into benzoic acid, a product stocked in undergraduate and high school ...

Styrofoam egg cartons, hard plastic compact disc cases, red drinking cups and many other common products are composed of polystyrene, a type of plastic that makes up a third of landfill waste ...

Not all plastics are equal — some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills ...

The Stache Lab at Cornell, led by Prof. Erin Stache, chemistry and chemical biology, has discovered an efficient way to decompose non-biodegradable plastic polystyrene — a material commonly used in ...

It turns out that the black plastic lid atop your coffee cup has a superpower. And the Stache Lab at Princeton Chemistry, which uncovered it, is exploiting that property to recycle at least two major ...