Division/Committee: [PMSE: Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering]

Over 400 million tons of solid plastics are globally produced annually, but less than 9% of plastics is currently recycled. Traditional mechanical recycling of commodity polymers often present limitation due to undesirable degradation, oxidation, contamination, and altered molecular weight or composition. On the other hand, chemical recycling of polymers provides multiple paths for upcycled plastics. This symposium aims to feature recent advances in the fields of chemical recycling and upcycling of polymers. Specifically, the focus of the symposium includes synthesis of new polymers with closed-loop circularity, chemical upcycling paths for commodity plastics, synthetic paths for depolymerization and upcycling of polymers, dynamic polymers, and other polymer chemistry advances in chemical recycling.