Abstract
The increasing energy demand for space cooling and environmental pollution caused by post-consumer plastic waste are two of the most challenging issues today. Passive daytime cooling, which dissipates heat to outer space without external energy input, has emerged recently as a sustainable technique for space cooling. In this work, a plastic waste-based passive daytime cooling foil is reported to alleviate both issues simultaneously. The mirror-like aluminum-plastic laminate (APL) waste exhibits a satisfactory solar reflectance of 85.7%. Combining the APL waste with a laminated pouch foil reveals a remarkably simple but effective plastic waste-based cooling foil with a high emissivity of 0.87 in the atmospheric window, resulting in a compelling daytime cooling performance. The sustainable aluminum-plastic laminate waste-based cooling foil is flexible, easily scalable, low-cost, and fabricated with a common laminator. This makes the fabrication of passive cooling materials possible even for nonexperts, which will help to provide advanced sun shelters and comfortable temperatures to a wider community.