Science & Inventions
A simpler way to recycle acrylic glass
ETH Zurich researchers turn acrylic glass back into its building blocks at lower heat, in lab tests reported on October 19, 2026.
On October 19, 2026, ETH Zurich, a university in Switzerland, described a simpler way to recycle acrylic glass. Acrylic glass is a clear, hard plastic that is used in windows, furniture and the back lights of cars. However, much of this plastic is still thrown away when people no longer need it. The research behind the news was published in the journal Nature Chemistry on September 2, 2026.
Like other plastics, acrylic glass is made of very long chains of small units called monomers. When the chains are broken back into monomers, the monomers can make new acrylic of the same quality. The usual way to do this is to heat the plastic to more than 400 degrees Celsius. This uses a lot of energy, and the recovered liquid can contain up to 3 percent of impurities.
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To get back something useful from a material that has been used or mixed with other things.
This means that about 90 percent of the plastic was recovered as monomers.