A Holistic Remedy to the Plastic Era through a High-Performance Photocatalytic System

The increasing detrimental effects of plastic pollution on human health, societal systems, and the global economy demand urgent intervention. Effective management and control of plastics through preventive strategies, particularly considering their environmental fate and distribution across ecosystems, can enable plastics to be utilised as valuable carbon-rich feedstocks for the synthesis of high-value chemicals, thereby supporting global resource recovery initiatives. Conventional recycling approaches face significant limitations, highlighting the need for integrated strategies that combine efforts to reduce plastic waste generation with the implementation of innovative upcycling technologies. Among advanced treatment technologies, photocatalysis (PC) has emerged as a promising approach within advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), demonstrating high efficiency and sustainability in both the degradation of microplastics (MPs) and the upcycling of plastic wastes. This review systematically evaluates photocatalyst selection and pretreatment strategies to enhance solarto-fuel conversion efficiency. Furthermore, it elucidates the mechanistic pathways involved in photocatalytic degradation (PCD) of microplastics and photocatalytic upcycling (PCU) of plastics, while identifying key performance limitations and technological bottlenecks. Finally, the review proposes strategic research directions to improve the efficiency of photocatalytic upcycling and provides a comprehensive perspective for researchers working in this field.