The mounting pressure on the planet's finite resources makes it clear that production systems need to shift toward more sustainable models, where waste can be turned back into raw materials and reintegrated into the value chain. The circular economy has thus become a key strategy for the climate transition, though it presents its own set of challenges.
Many materials are difficult to recycle simply because they were never designed to be. The chemistry industry can play a fundamental role here by developing new materials and creating processes that can break down complex compounds into simpler, more usable ones.
Designing for reuse
Building circularity into the structure of materials requires addressing key considerations from the earliest stages of design, including the selection of renewable raw materials, the reusability of components, and the elimination of toxic substances during production.
Designing materials from biological sources holds enormous potential: they are biodegradable and can be developed to match their synthetic counterparts in terms of functionality. It's also possible to create compounds that incorporate natural additives to improve the properties of materials. For example, natural fibers can be added to polymers to make them more durable and lighter. These advances could benefit sectors such as packaging, construction, and consumer goods manufacturing.
Advances in chemistry at the molecular level make it possible to design materials with tailored or enhanced properties. Nanoscale manipulation can optimize materials, making them lighter, stronger, and more efficient—an especially valuable advantage in fields such as energy and construction. Waste recovery is also becoming an increasingly important part of circular chemistry. Improvements in recycling technologies are making it possible to transform waste into new products through processes like pyrolysis, which breaks down waste into chemicals that can be fed back into production cycles.
Closing the circle through chemical innovation
Amid these developments, new initiatives are emerging with a commitment to creating circular materials from the ground up. One of them is the European SURPASS project, focused on developing safe, sustainable, and recyclable plastics by design (SSRbD).
Its proposals include bio-sourced polyurethane resins capable of replacing PVC (polyvinyl chloride, a versatile, durable, and cost-effective thermoplastic polymer) commonly used as insulation in window frames, with an estimated 40% reduction in carbon footprint. Other innovations include alternatives to metal for train bodies, which could cut emissions by around 30%, as well as multi-nanolayered films designed to replace non-recyclable packaging and reduce its carbon footprint by up to 60% (from cradle to gate).
The value of recovery
These techniques can be used with a wide range of materials. Design can play a decisive role in enabling their recovery and reuse without compromising their properties, thus putting chemistry to work in service of a more circular system.
Metals are a good example of recycling that's more mechanical than chemical, as the process doesn't produce anything different from the original material. They are also more recyclable than plastics, since they can be reused almost indefinitely without losing their properties. But some are denser and involve a more complex transformation process, like copper, bronze, lead, and gold, among others. Even so, recycling metals reduces the need to extract virgin materials, helping to lower the environmental impact associated with their extraction.
Other examples of progress in this area include work advanced by the Spanish Chemical Industry Business Federation (FEIQUE), such as the pyrolysis of mixed plastics. This process converts waste that's difficult to recycle mechanically—mixed plastics, contaminated materials, multilayer packaging—into reusable products that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators. Another example is gasification, which produces base chemicals.
There's also work being done to use hydrometallurgy to extract materials from batteries. A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has used this concept to develop a technique that enhances battery circularity. It's a chemical process for recycling used lithium-ion batteries that recovers more than 92% of critical metals (nickel, cobalt, and manganese).
The result is high-performance batteries made from recycled materials that perform on par with those made from virgin materials, according to the study. The batteries retain 88% of their capacity after 500 charge cycles and over 85% capacity after 900 cycles.
All these innovations are paving the way for the design of more efficient, recyclable, and lower-impact materials, with the chemistry industry playing a decisive role by generating new opportunities and driving the transition toward a more circular model.
