Back story: 'We need to stay driven by what motivates us, not by what motivates other people.'

Abstract

You are working to develop biological methods to recycle plastic sustainably into higher value chemicals. Tell us more. Most of the research done so far focuses on breaking down or melting down the plastic and reforming it into more forms of plastic - many of which are of a lower grade than the first­generation polymer. Instead, I'd like to turn plastic into a resource by using it as a feedstock for making industrial chemicals. I'm a chemist by training, so I have always been fascinated by the ways in which we can make the chemical industry more sustainable. The chemical industry is responsible for vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, so I think finding ways to tackle this while addressing the plastic waste crisis is really interesting.