Be wary of black plastic items: They may be recyclable electronic junk containing heavy metals

Will toxic substances in e-waste get into food, or be absorbed through the skin to the human body?

New research by British scientists found that some consumer products are made of black plastic recycled from electronic waste. This resin is contaminated with many dangerous heavy metals such as bromine, antimony, lead . and may be gradually entering the lives of people around the world.

Typically, plastic recycling plants in the UK and North America do not recycle black plastic. But maybe some factories in China and the Middle East have done that. Black plastic has a special property that makes it impossible to recycle it clean.

British scientists have found concentrations of heavy metals in excess of the products made from black plastic, including: jewelry, plastic spoons, garden tools, Christmas decorations, coatings, clothing play, plastic boxes and office equipment .

Plastics are everywhere around us: in the ocean, landfills, in food, even if you don't expect it like the North Pole. While most plastics are clean, there is a very toxic plastic that you can easily identify with color.

Colored black plastic with carbon, in many cases is produced by burning by-products from oil extraction and refining activities. While other plastics can be melted to recycle by near-infrared rays, black plastic is not affected by this low-intensity radiation.

Therefore, we basically cannot recycle black plastic in the usual way. And even if black plastic is recycled, it will not become white, blue or pink plastic. Once the plastic is black, it will forever be black plastic.

Plastic recycling facilities in the UK and North America removed black plastic and dumped them in landfills.

However, black plastic is still very popular thanks to its aesthetics. Just by looking at the electronic devices, when the screen, the popular white computer keyboard in the 90s, has now turned black.

The question is, where do we get so much black plastic? Andrew Turner, an environmental scientist at Plymouth University, sought answers to this problem. And what he predicted would startle many people.

Although black plastic is often included in the rejection list in the UK and North America, factories in the Middle East and China may still do this. They recycle black plastic, and black plastic is collected mainly from electronic waste.

Old mobile phones, computers, televisions and countless other items were expensive devices, but they were also full of harmful substances. Plastics used in electronic devices are treated with chemicals such as bromine, antimony and heavy metals such as lead, to make it resistant to heat.

Plastic recycling plants in China and the Middle East are recycling black plastic from electronic waste. This black plastic may return to the electronics industry, but once used to make consumer products, it is very toxic.

Items found to have heavy metal concentrations exceed the threshold in the study.

In his research, Turner tested more than 600 items with black X-ray plastic materials, including: clothes, jewelry, office supplies, electronics, toys and even supplies. to store food .

X-rays allow him to precisely detect compounds mixed in resin, because each compound will produce a different diffraction graph. These graphs are considered their 'fingerprints', unmistakably.

The results indicate that many heavy metal contaminated items exceed the permitted level. For example, jewelry, plastic spoons, garden tools, Christmas decorations, coat hangers . have a bromine concentration that exceeds the bromine concentration allowed in electronic devices.

Toys, plastic boxes and office equipment also have lead concentrations exceeding the permitted level of electrical equipment.

' Black plastic may bring a high aesthetic, but this study confirms that recycling black plastic from e-waste is bringing toxic chemicals into consumer products,' said Dr. Turner. 'There are health and environmental impacts arising from the production and use of plastics in general, but black plastics pose the greatest risk.'

Currently, there is no way to know exactly where the recycled black plastic has come from in the supply chain, and then be made into household items, Turner said. He hopes that this study will create a voice in the scientific community, promoting further research to find this gap.

At the same time, he also wants to assess whether toxic substances in e-waste get into food, or be absorbed through the skin into the human body.