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  • NEWS FEATURE

Can this revolutionary plastics-recycling plant help solve the pollution crisis?

A world-first facility has a new way to break down ‘unrecyclable’ plastic waste.
By
  1. Mark Peplow

    1. Mark Peplow is a science journalist in Penrith, UK.

A worker empties a bag of plastic waste for recycling surrounded by lots of plastic bottles and bales.

A worker in Thailand empties a bag of plastic waste, the production of which is expected to balloon over the coming decades. Credit: Matt Hunt/Anadolu Agency via Getty

The world is miserable at recycling plastics. Currently, just 10–15% of the plastic waste we generate annually is recycled — with the rest incinerated, buried in landfill or dumped as litter1,2.

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Nature 638, 22-25 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00293-y

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