Outstanding plastic waste research earns prestigious Polanyi Prize

Dr. Elisabeth Prince has been awarded the John C. Polanyi Prize in recognition of her work creating more degradable and recyclable plastics. 

This prestigious award is presented by the Council of Ontario Universities to an individual or team whose research has led to outstanding advances in the field of natural sciences or engineering.

Prince's research team is focused on managing plastic waste to combat the global plastic waste crisis. While 80% of plastic waste can be recycled, the other 20% consists of a non-recyclable type of plastic - and it's exactly this type that Prince's team is working on. 

As director of the Prince Polymer lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Prince aims to make non-recyclable plastics into recyclable plastics through chemical additives. These chemical additives break down the non-recyclable components to make them degradable and able to be recycled through heating and remolding.

The awarding committee for the John C. Polanyi Prize acknowledged this research as having the potential to have a huge impact on sustainability and environmental remediation.

“I’m honoured to win this award. Many scientists that inspired me received this award early in their careers and went on to do great things, so it means a lot to be recognized as having that potential,” Prince says.

Read the full story on Waterloo News.