Polymers are fundamental to our daily lives, serving as the core components for a wide array of goods, including clothing, packaging, transportation infrastructure, construction materials, and electronics. Advances in polymer science open pathways for recycling and upcycling waste materials into more valuable chemical feedstocks. They can also have an outsized environmental impact: many widely used polymers are Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), widely recognized as "forever chemicals."