Chapter 3: Municipal Waste

Chapter 3 provides an overview of the applications of ionic liquids (ILs) in the valorization of municipal waste, namely food waste, paper and cardboard, and polymers. Within food waste, IL-mediated valorization routes applied to expired food items, waste cooking oil, and spent coffee grounds are discussed. ILs and related strategies to recycle paper and cardboard into building blocks and new materials are presented. Finally, the application of ILs in polymer recycling is overviewed, namely through the transformation of plastic into valuable building blocks and the depolymerization and devulcanization of rubber.