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Upcycling and recycling of plastic waste

Guest Editors:
Hui Jin:
 Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Massoud Kaykhaii: Politechnika GdaÅ„ska, Poland
Akeem Oladipo: Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey
Jun Xu: Tsinghua University, China


BMC Chemistry has published this Collection focused on upcycling and recycling of plastic waste. Each year roughly 353 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated globally, culminating in one of the greatest environmental challenges of this century. While recycling rates are increasing, current methods cannot keep up with this deluge of waste production. A solution may lie with a suite of innovative new processes to recycle and upcycle plastics more rapidly and efficiently as well as new approaches to assess the impact of this waste on our health and the environment.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Hui Jin: Xi'an Jiaotong University, China

Hui Jin is a professor for Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. His research focuses on multiphase reacting flow, supercritical water gasification process and its large scale utilization. He is Manager of the NSFC Funding for Excellent Young Scholars, Director of new energy multiphase flow institute in Xi'an Jiaotong University, Board member of Chinese society for electrical engineering, Deputy leader of multiphase flow professional group in the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.
 

Massoud Kaykhaii: Politechnika GdaÅ„ska, Poland
Massoud Kaykhaii is a chemistry professor for Politechnika Gdańska, Poland. His research work is focused on modern sample preparation techniques and their application for analysing ultra-trace amounts of different analytes in various matrices including polymer analysis and their degradation products. He has published 150 articles; authored three books, wrote 22 national standard procedures of analysis, and (co)supervised more than 100 MSc and PhD theses. He was awarded the prize of best researcher of USB three times. Publons recognized him four times as "top 1 percent of top reviewers". He was previously head of the Chemistry Department and the Chairman of Smartphone Analytical Sensors Research Centre.
 

Akeem Oladipo: Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey
Akeem Oladipo is a professor of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Eastern Mediterranean University's Department of Chemistry, Turkey. His research interests include cutting-edge techniques for eradicating environmental pollution, managing solid waste, recovering and reusing resources, treating water, and creating new functional materials for sensor, bioenvironmental, and energy applications. He has authored more than 150 publications, including research articles, book chapters and review papers, and conference communications. In addition to being named one of the Top 2% Global Scientists by Stanford University for the years 2020 and 2021, he also shared the 2017 Greenbrain Award.
 

Jun Xu: Tsinghua University, China
Jun Xu is a tenured associate professor for the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University. In 2011, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers to carry out the collaboration research in Prof. Günter Reiter’s group in University of Freiburg, Germany. He teaches Polymer Processing and Applications, Polymer Physics Lab and Polymer Processing Lab to the undergraduates. His research interests include polymer crystallization, biodegradable polymers, self-healable and recyclable dynamically crosslinked polyurethanes and  polyurea, and materials for smart devices.

About the collection

Each year roughly 353 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated globally, culminating in one of the greatest environmental challenges of this century. While recycling rates are increasing, current methods cannot keep up with this deluge of plastic waste production. A solution to this problem may lie with a suite of innovative new processes to recycle and upcycle plastics more rapidly and efficiently.

In support of tackling global plastic waste  and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production), BMC Chemistry has published this collection addressing:

  • Upcycling plastics to fuels, nanomaterials and monomers
  • Designing recyclable polymers
  • Plastic conversion strategies (e.g. pyrolysis, gasification, reprocessing, photo-reforming)
  • Plastic composition, conversion efficiency and catalyst selection
  • Use of compatibilizers 
  • Micro/Nano plastic detection and removal
  • Plastic waste remediation strategies


Image credit: Arsenii / stock.adobe.com

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, SNAPP. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Upcycling and recycling plastic waste" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.