Plastics recycling represents a challenging task which includes waste stream collection, sorting, pretreatment, and shredding, followed by mechanical or chemical processing. Some plastic waste streams may also include hazardous organic or inorganic substances that need to be removed before reuse. We have developed techniques for comprehensive characterization of recycled plastics based upon the direct inlet probe– atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DIP-APCI) combined with high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS). The use of DIP-APCI-TOF-MS for direct chemical fingerprinting of several industrially relevant plastics waste streams will be exemplified with special emphasis on the analysis of polybrominated flame retardants. This work is supported by the European Union from the Horizon Europe Programme through the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) under the Grant Agreement No. 101057067.
