Upcycling Medical Plastic Waste into Activated Carbons towards Environmental Safety and Sustainability

ABSTRACT

The ubiquitous plastic pollution poses a critical crisis to our human beings and entire ecosystem, and such medical plastic waste-caused environmental pollution is further being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we reviewed an emerging technical route on upcycling of plastic waste into activated carbons for CO2 capture, which is beneficial to achieving ‘waste-to-resource' strategy and mitigating both plastic pollution and climate change, simultaneously. Machine learning effectively accelerate synthesis of activated carbon with high-performance CO2 adsorption performance for sustainable plastic management. Cyclic performance indicators need to be evaluated to determine the application potential of the activated carbons. Such novel upcycling treatment is verified as a sustainable and practical route from perspectives of environmental sustainability and economic feasibility, providing a practical option for the goal achievement of United Nations Treaty on Plastic Pollution.