Advances in Recycling of Polymer Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental issues of the modern era. The widespread use of polymer materials, coupled with low recycling rates and the persistence of plastics in natural environments, has led to substantial accumulation of waste in landfills, waterways, and oceans.

Addressing this challenge requires innovative recycling and upcycling technologies, improved polymer design for circularity, and system-level strategies that integrate economic, environmental, and policy considerations.

This Special Issue, “Advances in Recycling of Polymer Materials,” aims to highlight recent scientific and technological developments that advance the sustainable management, recycling, and upcycling of polymeric materials. Continued innovation in recycling technologies is essential to improving material circularity and reducing plastic waste. This Special Issue welcomes both original research articles and comprehensive review papers spanning fundamental science, applied engineering, and system-level analyses.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Mechanical, chemical, and physical recycling.
• Catalytic depolymerization.
• Microwave-, plasma-, induction heating–, Joule heating–, and solvent-assisted recycling processes.
• Recyclable polymer.
• Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis.
• Recycling of mixed, multilayer, or contaminated plastic.
• Microplastic recycling.
• Biological or enzymatic recycling.
• Upcycling of waste.

Dr. Yuxin Wang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.