Unlike glass and aluminium, every time plastic is recycled, the polymer chain grows shorter which decreases its quality. The same piece of plastic can only be recycled about 2-3 times before it can no longer be used to make new products.

But a team of researchers at three facilities at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK.

“This is the first time that bioproducts have been integrated to make a PDK that is predominantly bio-based,” said Brett Helms, staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry who led the project. “And it’s the first time that you see a bio-advantage over using petrochemicals, both with respect to the material’s properties and the cost of producing it at scale.”

Unlike traditional plastics, PDK can be repeatedly deconstructed into pristine building blocks and formed into new products with no loss in quality. They are typically...