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Fingerprinting risk from recycled plastic products using physical and chemical properties
Summary
This study compared recycled plastic products intended for food and skin contact with new (virgin) plastic products and found that recycled plastics contained significantly higher levels of hazardous chemicals, including 10 times more metals and 3 times more cancer-linked compounds. The health risk from ingesting microplastics shed by recycled plastics was calculated to be twice as high as from new plastics. These findings raise important questions about the safety of recycled plastic products that come into contact with food or skin.
The increasing production and use of recycled plastics have raised significant concerns regarding the risks associated with hazardous chemicals. The recycled plastics can accumulate potentially hazardous chemicals, many of which are unknown and unregulated. This study compared the physical and chemical characteristics of recycled plastic products intended for food, oral, or skin contact applications with similar virgin plastic products. The results revealed significant changes in the surface morphology and elevated concentration of organic and inorganic chemicals in the recycled plastics compared to the virgin plastics. Specifically, metal(loids) concentrations were over 10 times higher, PFAS levels were twice as high, and PAH levels were three times higher in the recycled plastics. The calculated Hazard Index (HI) indicates up to a twofold increase in recycled plastics for both adults and children compared to virgin plastics, specifically through microplastic ingestion. The HI values exceed 1 for recycled plastic ingestion, therefore it falls in high-risk category due to the associated chemical exposure from microplastics.