We can’t keep thinking of plastic as garbage. It’s time to rethink the entire system
Each year, we produce over 400 million tons of plastic here on earth. That’s almost equal to the combined weight of every person on the planet. Most of this plastic is incinerated or sent to landfills, and less than 9% is recycled. But what if we could change that — starting with the kinds of plastic that have always been thought impossible to recycle?
That’s the vision driving Troels Skrydstrup, chemistry professor at Aarhus University and one of this year’s recipients of a Villum Investigator grant. With this new funding, his team will dive deeper into a long-overlooked challenge: how to break down so-called thermoset plastics and give them new life.
A different kind of plastic problem
To understand Skrydstrup’s work, it helps to understand what makes thermoset plastics so tricky.
“Most people know you can melt and reshape some plastics, like a plastic bottle or a shopping bag,” he explains. “Those are thermoplastics. But thermosets are different. They form a three-dimensional network that can’t be melted. If you try, they just decompose.”
Thermosets include materials like epoxy resins and polyurethane foams. They are used in everything from wind turbine blades and airplanes to mattresses and insulation. Their strength and durability make them ideal for industrial applications, but those same qualities make them nearly impossible to recycle.
Troels Skrydstrup is a Professor at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and at the Department of Chemistry at Aarhus University, where he leads a research group. His research interests include the development of new methods for chemical synthesis and catalysis. Troels Skrydstrup has received multiple research awards and is a co-founder of the spinout company SyTracks, which provides gas technology solutions to the synthesis industry.
Making plastics circular
Working with a team of researchers and industrial partners, Skrydstrup has already demonstrated that it is possible to chemically break down polyurethane foam into its original building blocks. These components can then be used to make new foam, creating the kind of circular system that today exists only in theory.
The same goes for epoxy resins. His team has succeeded in breaking down the three-dimensional network in epoxy resin and epoxy matrix, recovering some of its components — including embedded glass fibers — another first in the field.
At the heart of both breakthroughs is the use of chemical catalysts to accelerate and control complex reactions.
“This research builds on our group’s core strength in transition metal catalysis,” he says. “Transition metal catalysis is typically used to form new chemical bonds and molecules. But now we’re applying it to a completely new area: plastic recycling.”
Rethinking the chemical industry
The implications go beyond a single type of plastic. If successful, the project could help transform how the chemical industry thinks about materials, waste, and fossil fuel dependency. In Skrydstrup’s ideal future, chemical plants would be powered by alternative carbon sources like CO₂, biomass, and recycled plastics, instead of oil and gas.
“This kind of shift is essential if we want a fossil-free chemical industry,” he says. “And we have to achieve that within the next 20 years to meet global sustainability goals.”
The problem is urgent, and despite its scientific complexity, the scope of the challenge is easy to grasp. That is also one of the reasons why the Villum Investigator grant is so important for Skrydstrup.
“Plastic production is expected to triple by 2060,” Skrydstrup says. “We can’t keep thinking of plastic as garbage. It’s time to rethink the entire system.”
With a determined team, a promising track record, and strong support behind him, Troels Skrydstrup is helping to do just that.
The Villum Investigator Programme is announced every two years by the Villum Foundation. The program targets experienced and internationally recognized researchers who have demonstrated groundbreaking research for more than a decade. Each grant runs for six years, offering recipients the opportunity to pursue original ideas in the technical or natural sciences. In 2025, 11 researchers received a grant.
