According to Euronews.green, the system is the work of a team at the University of Cambridge and it could be another way to address the plastic waste problem while also possibly creating a new industry.

The device, which uses renewable solar power, can process both plastic waste and greenhouse gases to obtain two different products at the same time, namely syngas and glycolic acid.

UN's Environment Program claims that some 300 million tons of plastic waste are being generated yearly and only 9% of the total amount of that amount is being recycled, so the rest is left to decompose in nature.

The system can make a multitude of products if the type of catalyst in the reactor is changed.

Professor Erwin Reisner from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry said that "converting waste into something useful using solar energy is a major goal of our research."

"Plastic pollution is a huge problem worldwide, and often, many of the plastics we throw into recycling bins are incinerated or end up in landfill", he added.

While other similar solar-powered projects have been successfully conducted to this day, they weren't able to process both carbon dioxide and plastic waste at the same time, meaning the new system is not only faster, but also more efficient.

Subhajit Bhattacharjee, the paper’s co-author, said that "a solar-driven technology that could help to address plastic pollution and greenhouse gases at the same time could be a game-changer in the development of a circular economy."

He also said that the device can generate other types of materials, by simply changing the catalyst, making it more useful for a wider-range of industries.

Co-author Dr Motiar Rahaman said that "generally, CO2 conversion requires a lot of energy, but with our system, basically you just shine a light at it, and it starts converting harmful products into something useful and sustainable."

Now the team of scientists hopes that the project will be scaled one day into a large recycling facility powered by the Sun.