The widespread utilization of plastics results in millions of tons of waste plastics being generated every year. During the last decade, converting waste plastics to valuable resources has been a primary objective for researchers in academia and industry. Nonetheless, most of the plastic recycling methods still rely on mechanical processes that are limited to relatively pure polymers; these mechanical processes generate end-products with lower thermo-mechanical properties. Therefore, tertiary recycling or chemical recycling methods are currently gaining more interest, mainly with conventional petroleum-based polymers. Recently some examples of catalytic chemical recycling have been described on biodegradable plastics, especially thermoplastics. Indeed, the recycling of biodegradable plastics helps to close the loop towards a lower environmental impact in the life cycle assessment of the material. The purpose of this review is to present the latest catalytic chemical recycling methods that were developed as solutions to the end of life management of biodegradable polyesters, with a focus on polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB).

塑料的广泛利用导致每年产生数百万吨的废塑料。在过去的十年中，将废塑料转化为有价值的资源一直是学术界和工业界研究人员的主要目标。但是，大多数塑料回收方法仍然依赖于仅限于相对纯净的聚合物的机械过程。这些机械过程会产生具有较低热机械性能的最终产品。因此，第三循环或化学循环方法目前越来越受到关注，主要是使用常规的石油基聚合物。最近，已经描述了关于可生物降解的塑料，尤其是热塑性塑料的催化化学循环的一些例子。确实，可降解塑料的回收利用有助于在材料的生命周期评估中减少对环境的影响。这篇综述的目的是介绍最新的催化化学回收方法，这些方法是作为可生物降解聚酯的寿命终止管理的解决方案而开发的，重点是聚乳酸（PLA）和聚羟基丁酸酯（PHB）。