Researchers discover a new way to recycle stubborn Teflon plastics into fluoride products

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• Researchers discover a new way to recycle stubborn Teflon plastics into fluoride products</p>

<p>October 22, 2025 at 2:36 AM</p>

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<p>An egg in a nonstick pan (fred_dl / Shutterstock.com)</p>

<p>Researchers have found a way to turn Teflon into useful fluoride products, potentially opening up a way to recycle a durable plastic into something friendlier to the environment and to human health.</p>

<p>A group of scientists at Newcastle University and the University of Birmingham demonstrated an energy-efficient process that subjects polytetrafluoroethylene, known as Teflon, to a shaking process using sodium metal at room temperature, avoiding the need for relatively costly high-temperature processes.</p>

<p>The method breaks the carbon-fluorine bonds in Teflon and results in sodium fluoride, which can be used as a safe additive in toothpaste and drinking water to improve dental health.</p>

<p>The process presents a new way to recycle polytetrafluoroethylene, which is used in cookware and lubrication because it is resistant to heat and chemical reactions. Those same properties can make it a stubborn environmental contaminant when products reach the end of their lives and are sent to landfills.</p>

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<p>"Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Teflon are produced globally each year — it's used in everything from lubricants to coatings on cookware, and currently there are very few ways to get rid of it," corresponding author Dr. Roly Armstrong said in a press release. "As those products come to the end of their lives they currently end up in landfill — but this process allows us to extract the fluorine and upcycle it into useful new materials."</p>

<p>Researchers say the fluorine recovered in the new process could be used in toothpaste, or could be adapted for pharmaceuticals or other chemical manufacturing.</p>

<p>The new findings are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.</p>

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Source: "AOL General News"

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