ETH Zurich Chemists Find a Gentler Way to Recycle Acrylic Glass Into Like-New Plastic

Researchers at ETH Zurich have published a way to turn old acrylic glass, also sold as Plexiglas, back into the raw ingredients for new acrylic, using far less heat than existing methods. The university announced the work on 19 October 2026, and the study appears in the journal *Nature Chemistry*.

What the team did

Acrylic is used in windows, tail lights, furniture and protective barriers, but it is rarely recycled into new acrylic. The team, led by materials scientist Athina Anastasaki, found that one commercially available, low-cost chemical from the N-hydroxyimide family can start the breakdown, after which the reaction keeps going by itself.

• Yield: as much as 98% of the plastic is recovered as monomers, the small molecules it is built from.
• Temperature: the process starts at just over 200°C, versus a previous minimum of about 400°C for common pyrolysis.
• Solvents: none are needed.
• Purity: the recovered monomers stayed clean even when the starting plastic was dyed or contained impurities, and they can make new polymer of the same quality as the original.

"What makes our new approach so exciting is its simplicity," said lead author Richard Whitfield.

Why it matters

Earlier lab approaches often needed specially modified polymer chains, large amounts of solvent, catalysts or UV light. Because this one works with existing infrastructure and standard processes, the researchers say it avoids the costly equipment changes that held those methods back. ETH has filed a patent application and is looking for industry licensees, and the chemical industry has already shown interest.

What's next

This is laboratory research, not a plant in operation. The team still has to scale the process up, understand the reaction mechanism in detail and look for substances that speed it up. It works only for acrylic; other plastics need their own solutions, though the group plans to test the same principle on polystyrene.