Cold sintering may rescue plastic, ceramics, battery components from landfills

Young woman looking at a battery coin cell in a lab

 Recycling does not necessarily prevent an item from eventually ending up in a landfill, according to Enrique Gomez, interim associate dean for equity and inclusion and professor of chemical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering. Instead, recycling simply delays its end of life. Plastic bottles that are recycled and then turned into carpet, for example, eventually end up in the landfill when the carpet gets worn out and is thrown away.

Clive Randall

Clive Randall

Evan Pugh University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Director, Materials Research Institute

(e) car4@psu.edu, (e) randall@matse.psu.edu
(o) 814-863-1328
N-221 Millennium Science Complex

https://www.cdp.ncsu.edu/
Dinesh Agrawal

Dinesh Agrawal

Professor Emeritus

(e) dxa4@psu.edu, (e) roy-award@psu.edu 
(o) 814 863 8034 
0107 Materials Res Lab