Have We Finally Solved The Plastic Problem? Go to https://surfshark.com/undecided or use code UNDECIDED at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! What if every piece of plastic waste, like bottles, bags, even clothes, could be rebuilt from scratch, no sorting required? Not just melted and reshaped, but broken down to pure chemical building blocks and made new again. That's what a new wave of recycling tech promises. Northwestern University has built a catalyst that can zero in on a single type of plastic in mixed waste and break it down. No sorting, no problem. In South Korea, a 2,000°C hydrogen plasma torch is cracking mixed plastics in milliseconds, turning them into valuable building blocks for brand-new plastics. And in France, an enzymatic recycling plant is transforming previously unrecyclable polyester textiles back into virgin-quality plastic feedstock. We've been sold the recycling dream for decades, but the reality? Most plastic still ends up in landfills or the ocean. Could these breakthroughs finally turn recycling from marketing lie into working reality?

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Chapters

00:00 - Intro

03:13 - The Polyolefin Problem

04:19 - Nickel Catalyst Breaks Through

08:12 - Plastic vs. Plasma

12:03 - PET 2.0