An ambitious project at UC Berkeley aims to take plastic and break it down to create new plastic.
Scientists at Berkeley said they have discovered a new way to vaporize plastic bottles and bags. What remains is a gas that can be used to make new plastic products.
Scientists said this could one day bring an end to throwaway plastic processes, replacing the current system with what they call a circular economy in which plastic is broken down and literally recycled into new plastic.
"What we and many other people in our field are trying to do is to be able to break the actual bonds that hold the strings of carbon atoms together in these plastics so that we can break them down into what we make the plastics out of in the first place," Dr. John Hartwig said.
NBC Bay Area's Scott Budman has more in the video report above.
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