Damien Guironnet, a professor of chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois, is leading a new effort to create plastic packaging material that could be recycled or biodegrade.

The Department of Energy has granted $2 million over three years to the research team that includes Braskem America, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Princeton University. Their goal is to develop plastic that can be recycled perpetually, reducing waste and pollution from single-use plastics. 

This private-public effort is among seven supported by $13.4 million in DOE funding to reduce single-use plastics' carbon emissions and improve their recyclability through next-generation plastic technologies.

Read more about this project.