A dataset of organic pollutants identified and quantified in recycled polyethylene pellets
Carmona E, Rojo-Nieto E, Rummel CD, Krauss M, Syberg K, Ramos TM, Brosche S, Backhaus T, Almroth BC (2023). Data in Brief.
What they found
Chemical screening of 28 recycled polyethylene pellet samples, mostly from the Global South, detected and quantified 491 organic compounds and tentatively identified 170 more, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and plastic additives. The processing aid N-ethyl-o-toluenesulfonamide was common at high concentrations.
- Sample
- 28 recycled HDPE pellet samples from 13 countries, plus 1 virgin HDPE reference
- What it can't tell you
- A data paper: presence and concentrations, not migration into food or human exposure. Samples bought via NGO networks, not a random sample of recyclers. One virgin reference for comparison. Non-target identifications are tentative.
- Funding
- Swedish Research Council FORMAS and the Carl Tryggers Foundation (per acknowledgements); Europe PMC also lists Germany's BMBF. One co-author is from IPEN, an NGO network that bought samples.
- Topics
- Recycling, Chemicals
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 37965607); sample origin and funding from open-access full text (PMC10641591)