Contamination in plastic recycling: influence of metals on the quality of reprocessed plastic
Open accessAbstract
The global consumption of plastic continues to increase, and plastic recycling is highlighted as crucial for saving fossil resources and closing material loops. Plastic can be made from different polymers and contains a variety of substances, added intentionally to enhance the plastic's properties (metals added as fillers, colourants, etc.). Moreover, plastic can be contaminated during use and subsequent waste management. Consequently, if substances and contaminants are not removed during recycling, potentially problematic substances might be recycled with the targeted polymers, hence the need for quantitative data about the nature and presence of these substances in plastic. Samples of selected polymers (PET, PE, PP, PS) were collected from different origins; plastic household waste, flakes/pellets of reprocessed plastic from households and industry, and virgin plastic. Fifteen selected metals (Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Ti, Zn) were quantified and the statistical analysis showed that both the polymer and origin influenced the metal concentration. Sb and Zn were potentially related to the production stage of PET and PS, respectively. Household plastic samples (waste and reprocessed) were found to contain significantly higher Al, Pb, Ti and Zn concentrations when compared to virgin samples. Only the concentration of Mn was reduced during washing, suggesting that parts of it was present as physical contamination. While most of the metals were below legal limit values, elevated concentrations in reprocessed plastic from households, aligned with increasing recycling rates, may lead to higher metal concentrations in the future.
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Recycled polymers are hazardous because of the presence of phthalates in plastic products from households and industry.
“The reason why recycled polymers are hazardous is the presence of phthalates in plastics products from households and industry (Eriksen et al., 2018;Pivnenko et al., 2016).”
From Packaging design for the circular economy: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as Eriksen et al., 2018
The Introduction reports selected phthalates in household plastic waste and reprocessed plastic, but says their concentrations were higher than in reprocessed plastic from industrial waste. It does not establish that recycled polymers are hazardous because of phthalates; its discussion of potential health risks concerns metals (Section 3.3). (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Eriksen, M. K., Pivnenko, K., Olsson, M. E., & Astrup, T. F.
- Affiliations
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Eriksen, M.K.
- Venue
- Waste Management
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-09
- Volume
- 79
- Pages
- 595-606
- ISSN
- 0956-053X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2890872690
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 8
- FWCI
- 6.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orbit.dtu.dk
- Licence
- Locations
- Waste Management (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- California Environmental Protection Agency
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production
- Keywords
- plastic recycling, metal contamination, household plastic waste, metal concentrations, lead, zinc, antimony, PET, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene
- MeSH terms
- Metals, Plastics, Polymers, Waste Management, Recycling
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