There is a ton of plastic in the world and a lot of it is single use. Think plastic bags and water bottles. What we do with these items after their usefulness is over is something that science is struggling with. A new process has turned plastic into oil but don’t get too excited yet.

Scientists were able to break down a common plastic polymer into a liquid oil. This oil can be used for other things, one day. As of now, the process is new and too small scale to be of practical use. The process sort of cuts up the polymer and turns it to oil and one day may turn all the waste we make into something useful.

This is the newest way of reusing plastics. More popular and time tested practices create a variety of products but they too have their own issues. Namely that the plastic can only go through the process a limited number of times. This new process may give new life to plastics that have no other future than the landfill.