## 1 Introduction  
Effective waste management is essential for preserving environmental sustainability and safeguarding public health [1]. Poor waste disposal practices, especially concerning plastics, significantly contribute to land and water pollution, disrupt ecosystems, and pose severe risks to wildlife [2]. Plastic pollution has become a global crisis, with millions of tons of plastic waste entering oceans and landfills annually, where it can persist for centuries [3]. This pollution not only endangers marine life but also breaks down into microplastics, infiltrating food chains and adversely affecting human health [4]. As populations and consumption levels continue to rise, it is increasingly urgent to address plastic waste through improved waste management systems to mitigate long-term ecological damage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions [5]. One promising strategy for mitigating plastic pollution is its conversion into activated carbon, a highly porous material with excellent adsorptive properties that can be used to remove contaminants from water [6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12]. Activated carbon is typically produced by carbonizing organic material and subsequently activating it using either physical or chemical methods [11; 12; 13]. Physical activation involves exposing the carbonized material to gases, such as steam or carbon dioxide, at high temperatures (800-1100 \({}^{\circ}\)C), which enhances pore formation [14]. In contrast, chemical activation entails impregnating the carbon precursor with activating agents, often resulting in activated carbon with a higher surface area and larger pore volume compared to physical activation [15; 16]. The preparation of activated carbon from diverse plastic waste has been largely investigated. Commonly, specific items or simple polymeric formulas are addressed [7; 11; 17]. For instance, caps, bottles, or bags have been successfully transformed into activated carbon with competitive textural and chemical properties for adsorption applications [9; 11]. The use of complex plastic mixtures, such as those reported in the rejection fraction of plastic waste management plants, has been less explored due to the challenges that must be tackled [10]. Among various chemical agents, KOH is widely used for producing activated carbon with an enhanced porosity and surface area [18]. In addition to KOH, other chemical agents such as H\({}_{3}\)PO\({}_{4}\), ZnCl\({}_{2}\), NaOH, and K\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\), among others, are also commonly used in the production of activated carbon [19]. Among these activating agents, Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\) has emerged as an environmentally friendly alternative, offering a balance between efficiency and ecological impact. This relatively mild agent is effective for developing mesoporous, which is ideal for the retention of larger molecules. The activation of materials using Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\) has been the focus of various studies in recent years, primarily targeting the production of activated carbon [20; 21] for a variety of applications, including the removal of heavy metals [22; 23] and organic pollutants [24], and in the development of alkali-activated electrodes [25; 26], binders in geopolymers [27], and construction materials [28]. The use of Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\) in the alkali activation of high-carbon biomass fly ash demonstrates that increasing the Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\)/Na\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{3}\) ratio improved the compressive strength and density of the resulting materials [21]. The adsorption capacity of activated carbon produced from biological materials, such as rice husk [23; 29] and oil palm fromds [20; 30], has also been investigated. These studies demonstrate that chemical activation with Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\) enhances the porosity and specific surface area of activated carbon [26; 29], resulting in greater adsorption efficiency for pollutants such as heavy metals, such as Ni [31] or Pb [32], and organic dyes [24; 33; 34].