A team of researchers has developed a single-step process to convert polyethylene-based plastic bags and polypropylene-based surgical masks into carbon dots. Carbon dots are carbon nanomaterials that are biocompatible and have applications in the fields of biological imaging, environmental monitoring, chemical analysis, targeted drug delivery, disease diagnosis and therapy, and anti-counterfeiting. Existing methods to upcycle plastic into carbon dots involve multiple, time-consuming steps and utilize toxic chemicals. However, researchers now have a new synthesis method, which is a simple, cost-effective, and highly scalable approach to upcycling plastic waste.