Christine Byrne, writing for Food Network:

To be clear, manufacturers aren’t adding flame retardants to black plastic kitchen items on purpose. Instead, the new study explains that these toxic compounds are making their way into the black plastic supply through the recycling of black plastic electronics. BFRs and other flame retardants are added to these appliances to reduce the risk of them catching on fire, and when the electronics get recycled alongside other types of black plastic, they contaminate the whole lot. “The detection of FRs in collected household products indicates that recycling, without the necessary transparency and restrictions to ensure safety, is resulting in unexpected exposure to toxic flame retardants in household items,” the study reads.

I know the study is specifically focused on black plastics, but I don’t really understand why it was limited in this way. Based on the findings, it seems that this sort of contamination is likely to impact other recycled plastics as well.

➝ Source: foodnetwork.com