Plastics have become indispensable in modern life and the material of choice in packaging applications, but they have also caused increasing plastic waste accumulation in oceans and landfills. Although there have been continuous efforts to develop biodegradable plastics, the mechanical and/or transport properties of these materials still need to be significantly improved to be suitable for replacing conventional plastic packaging materials. Here we report a class of biorenewable and degradable plastics, based on copolymers of γ-butyrolactone and its ring-fused derivative, with competitive permeability and elongation at break compared to commodity polymers and superior mechanical and transport properties to those of most promising biobased plastics. Importantly, these materials are designed with full chemical recyclability built into their performance with desired mechanical and barrier properties, thus representing a circular economy approach to plastic packaging materials.

塑料已成为现代生活中不可或缺的材料，也是包装应用的首选材料，但它们也导致海洋和垃圾填埋场中塑料废物的积累不断增加。尽管人们不断努力开发可生物降解塑料，但这些材料的机械和/或运输性能仍需要显着改善，以适合替代传统的塑料包装材料。在这里，我们报告了一类基于γ-丁内酯及其环稠合衍生物的共聚物的生物可再生和可降解塑料，与商品聚合物相比，具有竞争性的渗透性和断裂伸长率，并且比最有前途的生物基塑料具有优越的机械和运输性能。重要的是，这些材料的设计具有完全的化学可回收性，具有所需的机械和阻隔性能，从而代表了塑料包装材料的循环经济方法。