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Scientists Upcycle Plastic Waste to Soap

Researchers at Virginia Tech are developing a process to make soap from plastic refuse.

Upcycle Plastic to soap

Researchers at Virginia Tech are developing a process to take plastic waste from packaging, strip down the molecules and make soap and other detergents.

“Plastic pollution is a major problem we face today,” says Virginia Tech’s Greg Liu in a recent article in New Scientist Magazine. “We realized that if we can somehow break the polyethylene chain into smaller chunks and then add acid groups at the end of the chain, then we pretty much make a fatty acid.”

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