Question: How will you make plastic out of waste orange peels and pines and what kind science is it?

Helena Quilter answered on 7 Mar 2016:

Hey there, great question! It’s quite a tricky thing to do. First up I have to get oils out of the orange peel or pine tree. These are what make them smell so strongly of orange and pine, so I’m always making great smells in my lab! These oils are called limonene and pinene – you might find them in some products around your house like shower gels and cleaning products – have a look when you get home!

Once I’ve got my oils I have to do a few reactions with them in the lab to make them active so I can make them into plastics. Plastics are basically made up of really long chains of molecules stuck together called polymers (a bit like a string of pearls). So when I make my plastics out of my orange or pine oils I take one molecule of that and react it with a molecule of CO2. Then another molecule of my oil and then another CO2 over and over again. When enough get added together like that I get a plastic that we could use to make plastic bottles or food packaging!

It’s chemistry! I’m a synthetic chemist, which means that I make new molecules in a laboratory. It’s a lot of fun!