Plastic garbage, especially when burned, has a terrible negative impact on the ecosystem. Growing concern about the global environmental crisis is also being caused by the fall in plastic recycling.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have created a recycling process that substitutes carbon atoms from mixed garbage for all of the fossil raw materials used to create the new plastic in an effort to lessen the negative consequences of plastic.

With the use of this technology, plastic’s negative environmental effects may be eliminated, and the air could be cleared of its rising carbon dioxide levels.

The use of fossil fuels, according to the experts, is the primary contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, while the manufacturing and use of plastics, cement, and steel result in considerable emissions of greenhouse gases. To keep global warming to 1.5°C or below, such fuels must be restricted or outright banned.

The carbon atoms in discarded plastic were thought to be a significant untapped resource, according to the researchers. These resources are currently burned or might end up in landfills.

These days, thermochemical methods may utilise this waste carbon as a raw material to generate plastic that is comparable in quality to that produced using fossil fuels.

These atoms are already present in sufficient quantities to satisfy the world’s demand for plastic manufacture, claim the researchers. Waste can be used to capture carbon atoms; food remains or not.

According to a news statement from study co-author Henrik, “If the recycling process was driven by renewable energy, we would also get 95 percent less dangerous plastic items compared to those produced today, which effectively means less harmful emissions to the ecosystem.”

The waste would have to be heated between 600 and 800 degrees Celsius to completely finish the process, turning it into a gas. The manufacturing of the constituents of plastics allows for the addition of hydrogen to this gas. In order to keep the entire process in one location, the researchers are currently working to make sure that the gas can be used and transformed in plants that are currently used to make plastics.

The production process can also be run on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, or hydro power, which makes it more energy-efficient than the systems now in use.