Organo-catalysis is a basis for a new era of green polymer chemistry whereby polymers are made biodegradable like natural materials. With such a technology, disposable water bottles, for instance, would be broken down into the basic monomers needed to reform them again into new polymer bottles, creating a sustainable cycle, according to researchers at IBM and Stanford University. Plastics today, such as the popular polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in disposable drinking bottles, are not generally reused in other drinking bottles but in a secondary plastic product such as packing material, which in turn eventually ends up in the landfill. Today, more than 13 billion plastic bottles are thrown away each year, and about 63 pounds of plastic for every man, woman, and child in the United States end up in landfills. Green plastic will turn all that around by enabling products to be recreated in their own form.
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