Single‐stage chemical recycling of plastic waste to yield durable composites via a tandem transesterification‐thiocracking process

Abstract Environmental contamination by plastic waste is a growing threat to the environment and human health. Unfortunately, most post‐consumer plastics are still disposed of in landfills, even that could be easily recycled via simple chemical processes. This disconnect between technology implementation partly due economic barrier posed multi‐step processes convert into commodity goods. There an urgent need for green methods directly marketable commodities Herein we report simple, single‐stage process chemically recycle poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) yield composites having thermal mechanical properties competitive with commercial structural materials like Portland cement. In this protocol, mixture PET geraniol heated elemental sulfur. process, transesterification concomitant thiocracking backbone leads formation highly‐crosslinked sulfur–PET–geraniol (SPG) network composite. The composite exhibited compressive strength (23.1 MPa) greater than required cement used building foundations. new, recycling strategy thus employs bio‐olefin sulfur durable serve as sustainable alternative traditional cements.