Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a fully recyclable plastic material, according to reports.

Called poly(diketoenamine), or PDK, the material can be molecularly disassembled and then reassembled into another object with a different shape, color and texture, over and over again, without impairing the material’s performance or quality, according to researchers.

The Berkeley Lab said that the chemicals and fillers used in plastic products — for instance fillers for making plastic tough or plasticizers for making plastic flexible — are typically tightly bound to monomers, which form the large plastic molecules called polymers that remain even after recycling.

Additives like these can produce unexpected characteristics when combined with different recycled plastics. Plastic products composed of recycled materials are sometimes unrecyclable themselves, due to the unknown chemical additives. However, the PDK monomers can be separated entirely from those additives by steeping the item in a highly acidic solution. Items composed of the PDK material can be reshaped, re-colored and upcycled repeatedly. For instance, a watchband might eventually be transformed into a keyboard and that keyboard may later become a phone case.

"With PDKs, the immutable bonds of conventional plastics are replaced with reversible bonds that allow the plastic to be recycled more effectively," explained team leader Brett Helms.

Researchers will continue to work on the PDKs in an effort to develop variants with different thermal and mechanical properties. Such a development might enable the material to be used for applications involving foams, textiles and 3D-printed materials, for instance.

The search for alternatives to plastic, particularly of the single-use variety, grows with each plastic bag or straw ban. As communities begin to limit single-use plastic products, keeping it from polluting landfills and the ocean, companies and universities begun seeking alternatives.

Short of creating a new plastic, one company in Mexico has created an alternative to single-use plastic cutlery using avocado seeds, while researchers from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. have developed an entirely edible and biodegradable food packaging solution.