Monomers derived from renewable feedstocks have emerged as a novel sustainable alternative to petrochemical polymers. One of the biomass derived polymers that is recently gaining attention for food packaging applications is poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF). However, PEF is not biodegradable and its end-of-life options must be considered in order to avoid contributing to the accumulation of plastic waste. In this paper, after analyzing the suitability of PEF for packaging applications using an industrially relevant film-processing method, the chemical glycolysis of PEF was investigated using a thermally stable acid-base organocatalyst. After succesfully deconstructing the PEF films into bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-furan-2,5-dicarboxylate (BHEF), the obtained BHEF was used to resynthesize PEF using the same organocatalyst to sucessfully generate a biopolymer with similar chemical and thermal properties to virgin PEF following a closed-loop cycle according to the Circular Economy principles.

衍生自可再生原料的单体已成为石油化学聚合物的新型可持续替代品。聚（呋喃乙烯酸酯）（PEF）是最近在食品包装应用中引起关注的一种由生物质衍生的聚合物。但是，PEF不可生物降解，因此必须考虑其报废选择，以避免造成塑料废物的积累。在本文中，在使用工业上相关的薄膜加工方法分析了PEF在包装应用中的适用性之后，使用热稳定的酸碱有机催化剂对PEF的化学糖酵解进行了研究。在将PEF膜成功解构为双（2-羟乙基）-呋喃-2,5-二羧酸酯（BHEF）之后，