Each year, people in the U.S. throw out 10 million tons of broken or outdated computers, phones, and other devices. To prevent this e-waste from piling up in landfills, it’s essential to find alternatives to throwing it away, says Ting Lei, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California. Lei recently helped develop a new plastic polymer—a large molecule made up of repeating units. The chemical bonds between some of the polymer’s atoms break down in the presence of acids, such as vinegar. The polymer could be used to make dissolvable electronic components that are better for the environment.