https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssusresmgt.5c00447

https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/announce/20251114/index.html

A team at Tokyo Metropolitan University has developed an inexpensive, readily available, high-performance iron catalyst that can convert polyester into high-purity chemical raw materials almost 100% simply by mixing and heating it with alcohol.

For the quantitative chemical conversions of PET pellets, bottle waste, and textile waste, transesterification was done with alcohols using FeCl3−amine catalyst systems. The activity increased by adding small amounts of amine (benzimidazole). The scaleup reactions also afforded corresponding analytically pure terephthalates [e.g. dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) as white crystalline materials].