The chemistry and recycling of chewing gums - University of Leicester

Dr Shengfu Yang appeared on the BBC One Show talking about the chemistry and the recycling of chewing gums.
Our streets and pavements are now suffering from a monstrous plague of spat-out chewing gums, and it costs ~£60 million per annual for removal each year in the UK. Chewing gum wastes have now raised a great concern. The major component making the “chew” of the gums is plastics, which is flexible, stretchable but hard to break down into small molecules. Once they are spat on the street and stepped on, they become little disks that stick strongly with the surfaces, making it very difficult for removal. At the molecular level, this is due to the hydrophobic nature of plastics and the road surfaces, which defines the strong attractive interaction between them.

[@mreclipse7957]

I hate how their like "we need to all recycle gum" but doesn’t provide the ingredients necessary for others to recycle gum themselves

[@mpeg2tom]

Most chewing gum is polyisobutylene which is soluble in hexane.

[@havesomecarrots]

"secret ingredient" lol nothing helps the world quite like a company enforcing its own monopoly

[@Metqa]

This is Brilliant! I love it! Waiting for it to come to the U.S.

[@GingerWaters]

What can you do with used chewing gum? Can you make chewing gum hack video?

[@saivamsi8126]

Really interesting

[@nurzatkurmetkhan7054]

so, what secret ingredient is it? how can i connect with her?

[@shishtbm2968]

I think we need to stop chewing

[@enoch7thadam1st2]

Hahaha no secret anymore!!

[@VintageCR]

so its basically a great product because its indestructible in a way.. but in turn the system is pumping millions into removing it from the ground..

[@raphael100]

💗✨Je m’adresse à tous les otakus✨💗