PAH and POP Presence in Plastic Waste and Recyclates: State of the Art

Juan A. Conesa, Samuel S. Nuñez, Núria Ortuño and Julia Moltó
Additional contact information
Juan A. Conesa: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Samuel S. Nuñez: Institute of Chemical Process Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Núria Ortuño: Institute of Chemical Process Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Julia Moltó: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: The presence of different pollutants in recycled plastics is reviewed in this article. The desirable circular economy of plastics should be linked to the availability of clean recycled plastics with a non-significant and small to nil amount of substances of concern. Different researchers found polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs), pesticides, dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs) in plastic recyclates. This represents an added difficulty to the effective recycling process of plastics that reduces the demand for energy and materials, in addition to posing a great environmental danger since they represent a vector of accumulation of the contaminants that will finally appear in the most unexpected products. Life Cycle Analysis of the plastic wastes recycling process indicates a great saving of energy, water and CO 2 emissions.

Keywords: plastic waste; dioxins; PCDD/Fs; BFRs; pesticides; legacy compounds; recyclates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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