In this work, mechanocatalytic oxidative cracking is used to overcome the chemical inertness of poly(ethylene) (PE) and the difficulties associated with processing this solid feedstock. An Fe 2 O 3 -based Fenton system is applied to introduce oxygen-based functional groups to the PE backbone with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. Once an oxygen-based functional group is introduced, the polymer chain can be cleaved to achieve cracking effectivity, with only CO, CO 2 , O 2 , and H 2 O as byproducts. The resulting fragments can be used as intermediates to produce fuels and sustainable chemicals.