To overcome the problems of waste management we need to bring out solutions for this and it would be a significant step towards the solution of waste management problems. 

HIGHLIGHTS
A significant step towards the solution of waste management problems
Carbon atoms are converted into plastic products without harming the environment
The technique is different from the way waste is recycled in nature

The researchers of the 21st century have developed a way to turn out the carbon atoms in mixed waste and then later into new plastic without having any kind of impact on the environment. According to the new method, there will be no requirement for fossil raw materials and it would be a cleaner way to create plastic products. Currently, a small fraction of the waste material produced is only recycled not the whole amount. 

In a new study, the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has certain researchers who have used the carbon atoms in the waste to create raw material for plastics production.

As per Henrik Thunman, the Professor of Energy Technology at the Chalmers University of Technology and author of the study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production 'The carbon atoms in waste are enough to meet the needs of all global production of plastics. With the use of these atoms, we can decouple new plastic products from the supply of virgin fossil raw materials.' 

The new recycling method has been inspired by the natural carbon cycle and, it would help to eliminate the need to use fossil raw materials while making plastic. The carbon atoms which are used in the study are usually burned up or dumped in landfills instead of recycling them.

Therefore, the team has proposed a method in which the thermochemical technique is used in such a way that the waste material is treated properly. After heating the waste at 600-800 degrees Celsius it gets turned into a gas. Hydrogen is added to the gas later so that it can be used as a block of plastics.

The researchers have been working in such a way to develop a thermochemical recycling method that would generate gas and that can replace the fossil oil or gas used in factories to make plastic products. For doing this, they had to put old plastic products and paper cups with or without food residue into reactors at the Chalmers Power Central.

Thunman has mentioned that 'the ultimate key to more extensive recycling is to look at residual waste in a whole new way: as a raw material full of useful carbon atoms. The waste will then acquire value, and you will be able to create economic structures to collect and use the material as a raw material worldwide.'

Thunman explained that their technique differs from the way the waste is recycled in nature. 'We don't have to take the detour via the atmosphere to circulate the carbon in the form of carbon dioxide,' he said.

Thunman has also explained that all the carbon atoms that are needed to make plastic are already present in the waste and, it can be further recycled using electricity and heat.

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