This thesis investigates the chemical recycling to monomer of three common use polymers. It follows a two-phased approach based upon conducting an initial depolymerisation screen, before leading on to the investigation of selective depolymerisation reactions.

Chapter 1: Provides a background into the current state of global waste plastic processing, discussing current practices and their drawbacks. The advent of chemical recycling, and chemical recycling to monomer, are then introduced, highlighting potential prospects and challenges that could be met. The second section of this chapter is an in-depth review of recent literature and current advances within the areas of chemical recycling to monomer, and selective chemical recycling, encompassing a range of polymers.

Chapter 2: Outlines the screening process undertaken to assess the reactivity of the polyesters polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polylactic acid (PLA) and the polycarbonate bisphenol A polycarbonate (BPA-PC), to glycolysis across a range of temperatures and employing different combinations of Lewis acid and Lewis base catalysts. With the aim to uncover instances of selectivity in depolymerisation.

Chapter 3: Builds upon the experience gathered from the previous chapter, taking notable instances of selectivity, and combining them into sequential processes for mixed polymer depolymerisation studies. Investigation into alternative reaction conditions is also undertaken, to identify reactions systems that will produce value-added products.

Chapter 4: Summarises and concludes the findings from chapters 2 and 3 and discusses the possible future directions of this work.