Plastic recycling results in rare metals being found in children's toys and food packaging

There is no simple, easy solution to our environmental problems. We need to use fewer resources overall.  An economy that depends on an ever increasing population and use of resources is a Ponzi scheme.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uop-prr021621.php

 

News Release 17-Feb-2021
University of Plymouth

 

Some of the planet's rarest metals - used in the manufacture of smartphones and other electrical equipment - are increasingly being found in everyday consumer plastics, according to new research.

Scientists from the University of Plymouth and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tested a range of new and used products including children's toys, office equipment and cosmetic containers.

Through a number of detailed assessments, they examined levels of rare earth elements (REEs) but also quantities of bromine and antimony, used as flame retardants in electrical equipment and a sign of the presence of recycled electronic plastic.

The results showed one or more REEs were found in 24 of the 31 products tested, including items where unregulated recycling is prohibited such as single-use food packaging.

They were most commonly observed in samples containing bromine and antimony at levels insufficient to effect flame retardancy, but also found in plastics where those chemicals weren't present.

Having also been found in beached marine plastics, the study's authors have suggested there is evidence that REEs are ubiquitous and pervasive contaminants of both contemporary and historical consumer and environmental plastics.

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Dr Andrew Turner, Associate Professor (Reader) in Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth and the study's lead author, said: "Rare earth elements have a variety of critical applications in modern electronic equipment because of their magnetic, phosphorescent and electrochemical properties. However, they are not deliberately added to plastic to serve any function. So their presence is more likely the result of incidental contamination during the mechanical separation and processing of recoverable components.

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In May 2018, he showed that hazardous chemicals such as bromine, antimony and lead are finding their way into food-contact items and other everyday products because manufacturers are using recycled electrical equipment as a source of black plastic.