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They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. That turned out to be true for some chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MADISON, Wis. -- They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. That turned out to be true for some chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A new method they've developed, described in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science, could increase the economic incentives for plastic recycling and open a door to recycling new types of plastic.

"For almost five years now, we've been working on this technology," Professor George Huber said. He also directs the Department of Energy-funded Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics.

The method burns plastic and turns it into a liquid that can be used to make soaps and cleaners, as well as other more useful polymers.

The researchers estimate their methods could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional production of these industrial chemicals by roughly 60%.

"We can thus recycle more plastics and enable a circular economy and a more sustainable society," said Houqiuan Li, a postdoctoral researcher.

The recycling industry could adopt the process soon; in recent years, at least 10 large chemical companies have built or announced plans for facilities to produce pyrolysis oils from waste plastic.

The next step for the team is to tune the process and better understand what recycled plastics and catalyst combinations produce which final chemical products, as they await a patent on their method.

More details on the development are available here.

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