Plastic recycling results in rare metals being found in children's toys and food packaging:
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.
The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, is the first to systematically investigate the full suite of REEs in a broad range of consumer plastics.
Journal Reference:
Andrew Turner, John W. Scott, Lee A. Green, Rare earth elements in plastics,
Science of The Total Environment, Volume 774, 20 June 2021, 145405.
(DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145405)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @06:07PM
the rocks are practically raw they're so rare
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @06:37PM (5 children)
Recycling concentrates contaminants.
That's not so "green." Also not healthy: using sewage sludge for fertilizer. It's got concentrated contaminants you are putting on your lawn or a field to grow food. Heavy metals are an issue.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_224398 [huffpost.com]
Some things are best thrown away or incinerated.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @07:16PM (4 children)
Incineration doesn’t magically convert elements to other elements - it just puts them into the air we breathe. Thinking incinerators somehow magically make the problem go away is as stupid as thinking mRNA vaccines will alter your genes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 18 2021, @08:01PM
Thinking incinerators, and unthinking incinerators. Neither one can magically make the problem go away.
And no, mRNA vaccines won't hurt most brands of jeans.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @09:10PM (2 children)
Genius, do you think there aren't filters on the output of an incinerator?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @09:35PM (1 child)
Silly you - do you believe those fitness are 199% effective?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @05:25PM
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday February 18 2021, @07:01PM (7 children)
"Rare Earth" elements are not rare in the sense that there is little of it on Earth there's actually quite a lot. They just aren't found in concentrated seams in a mine.
(Score: 1) by dioxide on Thursday February 18 2021, @07:05PM (6 children)
Indeed, there's a ton of stuff we really, really want, but it's out of reach on the ocean floor.
Some day tho..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @07:37PM (5 children)
like a bunch of plastic children's toys with trace earth elements for remining.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @07:57PM (2 children)
The eventual solution is to have nanobots molecularly mining our garbage dumps. Problem is how to restrict them to the dump sites rather than getting into the rest of the world and turning everything, including us, into their selected elements.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @12:03AM
Grey goo aside, this assumes nanobot technology can even work.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday February 19 2021, @12:30AM
There have been efforts to engineer bacteria and use plants to scavenge and concentrate metals from polluted soil.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @09:47PM (1 child)
This is SOYLENTnews. Won’t anyone think of the children? The obvious solution is to recycle the children, not just their poop. Bonus points for removing future consumers of products containing heavy metals. It’s not like today’s kids really appreciate heavy metal, or even classic rock, anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @12:58PM
This post approved by the Involuntary Human Extinction Movement.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 18 2021, @08:06PM (1 child)
China is limiting rare earth elements exported to the Untied States. Because to trip up the production of F-35 fighter jet, which is on Amazon's top seller list to US ally countries.
So now these embargoed rare earth elements are being found in plastic in children's toys?
Solution! Collect the children's poop, and extract the rare earth elements that were in the plastics!
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday February 18 2021, @11:00PM
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Thursday February 18 2021, @09:32PM (2 children)
Almost all microwave meals are smothered in plastic. It may as well be a seasoning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2021, @09:39PM
Might be agoodidea to take those plastic encased microwave meals out of their “convenience containers” and put them on plates before nuking them. Or just nuke them and then plate them for the in-laws.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @02:45AM
Put that mask back on you! I wonder whats in the cheap PPE crap coming out of China.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 19 2021, @12:37PM (2 children)
As a child of the 70's I spit upon the health scares for these, today's quislings. We rode in the back seats of cars without seat belts. We jumped up and down in the bed of the pickup as it rolled merrily along at highway speeds. We ate saccharine morning, noon, and night and shoveled pure white sugar onto our Lucky Charms by the spoonful.
Rare Metals indeed. We had leaded gasoline and parents smoking around our cribs. We had Chernobyl making our milk glow.
Come back to me when your challenges exceed "inability to find a safe space when a triggering phrase was used."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @02:19PM
The article noted these contaminants came from plastic infused with fire prevention chemicals. Those chemicals are poisons that are completely unnecessary but are mandated by law. It's a scam to benefit the chemical companies that manufacture these goods--nothing more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2021, @05:27PM