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Researchers have created a material inspired by seashells to help improve the process of recycling plastics and make the resulting material more reliable.<\/p>\n
The structures they created greatly reduced the variability of mechanical properties typically found in recycled plastic. Their product also maintained the performance of the original plastic materials.<\/p>\n
The researchers says their bio-inspired design could help cut manufacturing costs of virgin packaging materials by nearly 50% and offer potential savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because less than 10% of the 350 million tons of plastics produced each year is effectively recycled, the new approach could keep more plastic out of landfills.<\/p>\n
Georgia Tech aerospace engineering assistant professor Christos Athanasiou led the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here, Athanasiou digs into plastic recycling and the benefits of the new approach:<\/p>\n