Comment by jl6
> Wood is basically polymers. Much easier to use that directly.
Is there a (plausibly economic) direct wood-to-plastic process?
> Wood is basically polymers. Much easier to use that directly.
Is there a (plausibly economic) direct wood-to-plastic process?
It's a pretty big research area to make useful things from lignocelluose which you could get from trees but also crops like switchgrass:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266689392...
Like plastics recycling the basic problem is that it competes with plastic monomers and other bottom-of-pyramid substances that cost about 50 cents a pound. For instance you can make ethanol fuel using either strong chemicals under harsh conditions and mild conditions or with enzymes under mild conditions. Either way it doesn't work economically, you can use $30 of enzyme to make $1 of fuel, but hey, sometimes you get a radical cost reduction.