Consumers increasingly expect and demand sustainable products without trade-offs in performance, convenience, and/or cost. Concerned companies, like P&G, have established sustainability goals that include the use of large percentages of recycled raw materials in their products and packaging. To satisfy consumers’ expectations and achieve companies’ goals, P&G has embarked on a multipronged strategy to create and sustain a circular economy for polymers. The scope of these efforts is comprehensive and includes polymers used across P&G’s entire portfolio of brands and product applications. Delivering a circular economy requires redefining what has been historically considered to be “waste” and instead reclassifying these materials as valuable raw materials that can transformed into products. New technologies and breakthrough innovation will be required solve the challenges that lie ahead. Towards this end, we will most certainly depend on the expertise, ingenuity, and executional excellence of the entire polymer science community. We must educate and empower both current and next generation of polymer scientist and engineers to reinvent our polymer economy. This work is being presented in honor of Professor Timothy Long, who has been a passionate educator, research leader, and friend to many in the polymer community.<br/><br/>This talk will provide an overview the circular economy of polymers and touch on the research and innovation underway to deliver it.

Creating a circular economy for polymers in consumer products

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.