The overall objective of the project is to build knowledge about the prevalence of consumer products containing recycled plastic, hereunder about the types (polymers) and origin of recycled plastic in consumer articles, which hazardous substances may occur in such articles, and whether these substances pose a risk to consumers, especially children, during the use phase.
PET is the most abundantly used recycled polymer (41%) in the toys, childcare articles, textiles for clothing, home textiles, and furniture made of recycled plastics. About half of the articles surveyed had an unspecified source of recycled plastic; approximately 40% were made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics, and 10% from post-industrial recycled (PIR) plastics. However, it is noted that these figures are presumably biased.
The findings of the literature review support that hazardous substances can be present in consumer products made from recycled plastic for several reasons, e.g. as additives originating from the virgin plastic products, as additives added to improve properties of the recycled plastic or as impurities from the recycling process. To obtain data for the risk assessment, the specific article group of textile products made of recycled polyester with exposure to children, was selected for further investigation by chemical analysis.
A non-target screening identified about 200 different organic substances and 12 metals in the textile articles. A subset of articles was analysed further by targeted migration-to-sweat simulation analyses. Diisocyanates (2,4-TDI, 2,6-TDI and MDI) were the only substances measured in concentrations above the detection limit.
Due to lack of applicable, quantitative hazard data for diisocyanates in consumer use, a quantitative risk assessment could not be performed. Thus, the risk assessment was conducted based on a qualitative approach for skin irritation, skin sensitizing, and/or carcinogenic substances. For skin irritation, the health risks are considered controlled. For skin-sensitizing and carcinogenic effects qualitative risk assessment cannot fully rule out whether the low levels of isocyanates potentially released from the textile articles can cause an unacceptable risk to children wearing such textiles. In any case, it is noted that there are no clear indications that the substances are specific to recycled polyester, meaning that they could probably occur just as well in virgin polymer textiles made of PET or PUR.
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