From Pollution to Solution: Rethinking Waste as a Climate Innovation
- Joanne Yeung
- Sep 10
- 4 min read
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “climate innovation”? Solar panels shimmering on rooftops? Towering offshore wind farms spinning against the horizon? Massive steel structures designed to capture and store carbon? In fact, some of the most intriguing breakthroughs are happening at the microscopic level — in chemistry and microbiology labs where scientists and engineers are reimagining what we can do with the things we usually throw away.
A New Kind of Plastic Reuse
Recently, researchers at the University of Copenhagen unveiled BAETA, a material created by upcycling PET plastic waste into a porous powder that can capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks. Instead of choking our oceans with and filling landfills, those bottles and textiles could potentially become the raw materials for carbon dioxide sorbent - a critical tool in the fight against climate change.
The process begins with chemical upcycling of PET into materials for CO₂ capture via aminolysis. Unlike conventional recycling, which often downgrades material quality, this pathway upgrades plastic into a new, high-value material that demonstrate strong chemisorption featuring high selectivity for CO₂ capture.
Laboratory tests show that BAETA can capture CO₂ at rates comparable to leading industrial sorbents. Crucially, it remains stable from room temperature up to about 170 °C, making it suitable for smokestack environments where CO₂ is most concentrated. After absorption, BAETA can be regenerated by heating, releasing a concentrated CO₂ stream for underground storage or reuse in synthetic fuels (Power-to-X), in which CO₂ acts as a feedstock, closing the carbon loop.
Beyond BAETA
BAETA is not the only example of waste being reinvented for climate solutions.
The principle is simple but profound: waste streams are not liabilities but resources, waiting to be transformed into other useful materials. To get there, we need to abandon the linear idea that items can only pass through the production line once. A properly designed cradle-to-cradle approach could make circularity the new norm.
Two Crises, One Opportunity
Plastic pollution is projected to nearly triple by 2060 under current trends. The urgency was underscored this summer when the 5th Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) failed to reach an agreement on the first legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution. Meanwhile, pathways consistent with the Paris Agreement show that carbon removal technologies will need to scale to 5–10 GtCO₂ annually by mid-century to keep the 1.5 °C goal alive. By upcycling plastics, farm residues, or industrial byproducts into carbon capture materials, we have the chance to tackle both challenges simultaneously: shrinking mountains of waste while building tools to draw down or prevent carbon pollution.
The Promise—and the Pitfalls
The allure of this approach lies in its blend of circular economy and climate mitigation. But scaling it won’t be simple:
Scalability – What works in the lab must be proven at industrial scale. Producing enough BAETA or similar sorbents to make a global dent requires investment, supply chains, and regulatory support.
Energy efficiency – Some waste-to-sorbent processes demand significant energy; if powered by fossil fuels, the climate benefits could be undermined.
Avoiding new pollutants – Transforming waste requires careful chemistry; poorly designed processes could trade one form of pollution for another.
Still, every climate technology has followed this trajectory—starting as a niche innovation before moving into mainstream roadmaps. Just a decade ago, carbon capture was viewed as science fiction; today, it is embedded in EU and U.S. decarbonization strategies. Of course, the technology is still under development for broad application, but its increase in popularity is an important milestone for mobilizing more R&D investment in climate technology.
A Shift in Mindset
What excites me most is not just the chemistry, but the shift in perspective these advances represent. For decades, waste was treated solely as a liability—something to bury, burn, or ship elsewhere, such that they are “out of sight” and “out of mind”. These new materials ask us to see it differently: as a resource with hidden climate mitigation potential.
This change has ripple effects. It shapes policy, where governments are rethinking extended producer responsibility and circular economy incentives as landfills grow costly. It affects finance, where investors seek scalable, credible carbon removal pathways. And it influences public imagination, where stories of transformation—trash becoming tool—can inspire hope amid daunting climate realities.
The road ahead will be messy. One of the biggest hurdles in R&D is still the business case: how to make these innovations economically sustainable without negating their environmental gains. Not every “waste-eating” material will scale. Not every lab breakthrough will survive the leap to market.
But the direction is clear. Sustainability is no longer just about prioritizing between pollution control and climate mitigation. Increasingly, the two are converging for greater impact. Of course, the best solution to plastic pollution is cutting it off at the source. But when waste is unavoidable, creativity is essential. Its rebirth—whether as a useful material, or as part of a carbon capture filter in a factory chimney—may ultimately determine whether these innovations remain curiosities or mature into real climate solutions.
[First published on Substack "Ginci Insights" on September 10, 2025: https://gincinno.substack.com/p/from-pollution-to-solution-rethinking?r=2cxt8s]
Comments