How Chemistry at Bath is Tackling the Plastics Problem
The sheer scale of the plastics problem can be difficult to comprehend. Data from the United Nations states that the equivalent of 2,000 rubbish trucks of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes every day. Driven by unsustainable production and use, plastic has created a global environmental crisis that directly affects habitats, food production, and livelihoods.
The solution, according to Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, is not as simple as asking consumers to recycle more: “We need a systemic transformation to achieve the transition to a circular economy,” she says.
It’s a transformation being led by the University of Bath.
The Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change
The Bath Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change (ISCC) was launched to tackle the most urgent sustainability challenges of our time. Led by Professor Matthew Davidson, Executive Director of Bath ISCC and a leading expert in sustainable chemical technologies, the Institute is driving innovation in companies working in green growth.
“Our multidisciplinary research sits across three core themes,” says Matthew. “Sustainable Chemical Technologies, Sustainable Systems, and Social Transformations. In the sustainable chemical technologies space, we're putting chemistry at the core of new solutions that will enable a circular economy.”
Chemistry Research in the ISCC
- Using renewable resources and biotechnology to make chemicals, fuels and materials from biomass rather than petrochemicals
- Investigating clean energy conversion and storage to enable resource-efficient, low-carbon industries
- Developing (bio)chemical processes to make the manufacturing of chemicals less wasteful and more energy-efficient
- Valorising (recovering and reusing) waste from industrial, agricultural and municipal sources and studying its environmental impact
- Designing high-performance materials with embedded recyclability or degradability for end-of-life use
Professor Matthew Davidson, Executive Director of Bath ISCC
Professor Matthew Davidson, Executive Director of Bath ISCC
Alumnus Nav Sawhney and Bath MP Wera Hobhouse at the launch of the Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change in 2025
Alumnus Nav Sawhney and Bath MP Wera Hobhouse at the launch of the Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change in 2025
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Academic and Industry Collaborations to Tackle Plastic Waste
The Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST), housed within the ISCC, is a joint initiative with the University of Oxford. It bridges academic research and commercial application of sustainable chemical technologies, supporting over 40 industry projects and enabling breakthroughs in biodegradable materials, battery recycling, and circular economy solutions.
One such collaboration between iCAST and Central Plains Group (CPG) aims to remove glycerol from plastic production. Glycerol, which has a considerable carbon footprint, undergoes thermal degradation during processing and releases harmful toxins that pose significant health risks to both workers and consumers.
Eliminating or significantly reducing glycerol content could save up to 60,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent annually by 2027 — a major step toward global sustainability goals.
Finding alternatives to glycerol is a crucial challenge for the industry. Current bioplastics, including Thermoplastic Starch (TPS), are less practical due to limitations in mechanical properties such as water sensitivity and thermal stability.
The iCAST–CPG research collaboration is developing optimised TPS blends with biopolymers to provide versatile and sustainable plasticisers. This enhances the thermal stability of TPS while paving the way for safer, more versatile, and cost-effective bioplastics.
“This collaboration between iCAST and CPG is not only improving the safety and sustainability of thermoplastic starch but also aligning with global efforts to combat climate change. As the project progresses, it promises to set new standards for the bioplastics industry, benefiting both people and the planet.”
UK’s First Pilot Plant for Recycling Plastic Lab Waste
The ISCC’s strong industry links have led to spinouts and startups already delivering impact in their mission to tackle global sustainability challenges.
University of Bath graduate Dr Helen Liang, who holds a PhD in Sustainable and Circular Technologies from the ISCC, co-founded LabCycle to make research more sustainable. Research institutions worldwide produce an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with less than 1% currently recycled.
LabCycle is the UK’s first pilot plant for recycling plastic lab waste. It aims to recycle up to 80% of this waste, turning it into high-grade plastic pellets for new tubes and petri dishes made from 100% recycled plastics.
Dr Helen Liang
Dr Helen Liang
“Adopting a circular economy approach involves optimising laboratory practices to minimise waste generation and resource consumption. Research and healthcare workers can focus on reducing and reusing single-use plastic items when possible.”
Designing recyclable thermosets
With plastic pollution among our most urgent environmental issues, creating degradable polymers is one of the most-pressing topics in materials chemistry.
Polymeric materials - plastic, nylon, polyester and epoxy to name a few - can be divided into two main groups. Thermoplastics, which are made up of linear chains of polymers, and thermosets which are made up of crosslinked chains that form an infinite polymer network. Most thermoplastics can be melted down and reprocessed almost indefinitely, giving them a new life even if they’re not degradable.
Designing degradable or re-processable polymer networks, such as hydrogels or rubbers, however, is a more formidable challenge. Polymer networks that use commercial vinyl polymers, for example, polystyrene or acrylics, are even more challenging as they contain all-carbon backbones that are notoriously difficult to break.
Dr Maciek Kopeć, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, and his team have recently discovered a way to incorporate carbon-sulphur bonds in the polymer backbone and use a newly synthesised chemical, dibenzo[c,e]oxepine-5(7H)-thione (DOT), as an additive comonomer.
This has allowed them to develop fully degradable polymer networks, as the formerly indestructible carbon-sulphur bonds can be easily split. Importantly, the degradation products could be subsequently repolymerised back to solid polymer networks, closing the recycling loop.
When put to the test, the team discovered their new DOT-containing gels had virtually identical thermomechanical properties to their DOT-free counterparts, showing degradable polymers can be created without adverse effects on performance or stability.
More recently, the team has focused on using a bioderived, commercially available dietary supplement α-lipoic acid as the additive comonomer for polymer networks. Similar to DOT, lipoic acid can incorporate cleavable disulphide bonds in the polymer backbone but does not have to be synthesised beforehand. Therefore, this approach combines two sustainability aspects, namely using bio-derived building blocks to synthesise degradable and recyclable thermoset polymer materials.
Upcycling Plastic Waste to
Make Recycling Pay for Itself
Further innovation in plastic recycling is being led by the University of Bath’s Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT), also part of our Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change (ISCC), with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Researchers have developed a new and simple method for upcycling plastic waste at room temperature, which they hope will help recycling become more economically viable.
By weight, there is currently more plastic waste in either landfill or the natural environment than all living biomass - 4 Giga tonnes. This presents one of the great environmental challenges of the 21st century. Whilst recycling rates are increasing across Europe, traditional methods remain limited because harsh remelting conditions reduce the quality of the material each time it’s recycled.
Now, researchers at the CSCT have developed a mild and rapid chemical recycling process for polycarbonates, a robust class of plastics commonly used in construction and engineering. Using a zinc-based catalyst and methanol, they were able to completely break down commercial poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (BPA-PC) beads within 20 minutes at room temperature.
The waste can then be converted into its chemical constituents, namely bisphenol A (BPA) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC), helping to preserve product quality over an infinite number of cycles.
Importantly, BPA recovery prevents leakage of a potentially damaging environmental pollutant, whilst DMC is a valuable green solvent and building block for other industrial chemicals.
Lead researcher Professor Matthew Jones, at the University of Bath’s CSCT, said: “It’s really exciting to see the versatility of our catalysts in producing a wide range of value-added products from plastic waste. It’s crucial we target such products, where possible, to help promote and accelerate the implementation of emerging sustainable technologies through economic incentives.”
First author of the paper, Jack Payne from the CSCT, added: “Whilst plastics will play a key role in achieving a low-carbon future, current practices are unsustainable. Our method creates new opportunities for polycarbonate recycling under mild conditions, helping to promote a circular economy approach and keep carbon in the loop indefinitely.”
Replacing microplastics with
biodegradable alternatives
In recent years, scientists have detected microplastic debris in more than 1,300 marine species. Unable to be broken down for hundreds of years, these microplastics have become heavily embedded in the food chain, raising grave concerns about their impact on environmental ecosystems and human health.
In October 2023, the EU introduced regulations to ban microplastics intentionally added to products, aiming to phase their use out gradually. The restrictions will begin with rinse-off products like shampoos and facial cleansers by 2027, followed by a broader ban on their use in personal care items, household products, agricultural products such as fertilisers, and other applications.
Naturbeads, a spinout from research at the University of Bath, has developed a scalable and cost-effective process to manufacture biodegradable cellulose microspheres that have the potential to replace these harmful microplastics. Using groundbreaking microbeads, Naturbeads will be able to ensure that fewer harmful plastics infiltrate the environment, delivering a sustainable solution for a greener planet.
The company was founded by Professor Davide Mattia from CSCT and the University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, the late Professor Janet Scott, formerly of CSCT and the Dept of Chemistry, and CEO Dr Giovanna Laudisio, an alumna of Bath’s School of Management.
Professor Davide Mattia says: “Over 2.3 million tonnes of microplastics are intentionally added every year to products in cosmetics, paints, water treatment and many others. An estimated 250,000 tonnes end up in the world’s oceans each year, showing the clear need for technologies such as ours to be adopted quickly.”
“Microplastics have been found at the top of Arctic mountains and in the depths of the Mariana Trench, with a recent study forecasting that microplastic pollution could more than double over the next decade. Our differentiator from other companies who are trying to solve challenges around plastic packaging is that we are one of few that is solely focused on the plastic found within daily products, and producing eco-friendly, scalable alternatives.”
Naturbeads has already partnered with global manufacturers to incorporate its technology into a range of industrial applications, demonstrating that its microspheres naturally decompose without affecting product performance. In 2024 they secured £7.8 million investment to address the global micro pollution challenge, with their first commercial manufacturing plant starting production in January 2026, increasing the production capacity of its biodegradable cellulose microspheres.
Pioneering sustainable biomaterial packaging from seaweed
Research and Development-led innovation business Kelpi is another example of a pioneering biomaterial technology with a key member of the University of Bath’s alumni community on the board.
Alumnus Hugo Adams is CEO of Kelpi, a biotech company working to replace single-use plastics made from fossil fuels with recyclable, biodegradable packaging alternatives from seaweed. The bioplastic biomaterial coating, applied to paper, card and fibre, provides a world-leading water barrier that offers a real alternative to fossil-fuel plastics.
Hugo is also an Independent Non-Executive Director (INED) of GB Surfing, supporting British surfers to reach world cup podiums and win GB medals, and is a self-declared ‘big fan’ of the oceans.
Speaking on the School of Management podcast series, Management Meets, Hugo said: “We have created a world-first which is a material that can replicate the properties of plastic but from an entirely natural feedstock. The way in which we do that is a functionalisation process. We take a seedweed polysaccharide and we combine that with vegetable oils through a chemical functionalisation process which is unique to us and patented.”
Kelpi has strong links with the University of Bath. Chris Chuck, Professor of Bioprocess Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, is a Co-Founder, Non-Executive Director and former CTO of Kelpi. He was approached by entrepreneurs and fellow co-founders of Kelpi - Murray Kenneth and Neil Morris, Chairman - who wanted to find a solution to the plastic problem.
It was Professor Chuck’s scientific knowledge combined with Murray and Neil’s entrepreneurial experience that led to Kelpi's founding. The firm is already working with some of the world’s largest companies.
Hugo said: “The whole purpose of our being is to be able to make a positive impact on plastic pollution and on the microplastic problem that we’ve got. Our ambition at Kelpi is to rid the world of plastic. We have an incredible team of people, of scientists and entrepreneurs to do that.”
In their ambition to scale, the firm recently secured £4.35 million investment to launch their pioneering biomaterial technology in the food and drink and cosmetics and personal care sectors. The funding round will allow Kelpi to expand its operations, grow its team and run scale-up pilots to plot a pathway to launch.
Hugo Adams, Alumnus of the University of Bath and CEO of Kelpi.
Hugo Adams, Alumnus of the University of Bath and CEO of Kelpi.
Professor Chris Chuck, Co-Founder, Non-Executive Director, and forner CTO of Kelpi, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath.
Professor Chris Chuck, Co-Founder, Non-Executive Director, and forner CTO of Kelpi, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath.
In this episode of Management Meets, hosts Professor Steve Brammer and Katie Calvert-Jones welcome Executive MBA alumnus Hugo Adams. Listen and explore Kelpi's ambitions to rid the world of plastic, not forgetting the importance of a leader’s passion, values-driven company culture and sustainable practices in driving business success in today’s world. Subscribe to follow the conversation.
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