UCLA and South Korean researchers have developed Alkaline Thermal Treatment (ATT) technology that converts three common mixed plastics (PET, PE, PP) into hydrogen fuel with 90%+ purity without pre-sorting—a breakthrough that addresses recycling's key bottleneck. The method operates 300-400°C lower than conventional approaches, captures 75% of byproduct carbon as solid, and removes the costly sorting step that limits real-world plastic recycling to just 9% globally. Currently lab-scale; next phase requires industrial scale-up before commercialization.