It is known that the physical and chemical properties of recycled plastic and virgin plastic are almost the same. So, is there any way to tell them apart? Is there no way to distinguish using equipments such as NMR, FTIR, GC, LC and etc?
Please, someGODy help T^T.
Our Polymer expert here At AnoxKaldnes normally use microscopy to look at the difference in chain structures.
I would like to suggest reading the information contained in Recycled Plastics vs. Virgin Resins: Which One is better? – Mid Continent Plastics, Inc. Blog
Virgin plastic is the resin produced directly from the petrochemical feedstock, such as natural gas or crude oil, which has never been used or processed before. Recycled plastic means a material that has been reclaimed after it has left the hands of the consumer. The chemical structure of the virgin and recycled plastic should not be the same.
The virgin plastics are used in packaging food and recycled are used to make sandals, roofing materials among others.
Though polymer expert can better explain the judging criteria but in lay man language black colored & other colours are basically added in recycled plastics
The recycled material, especially the post-consumer recycled, has a grey to black color.
The pristine plastic has white to transparent color.
The recycled plastic shows two peaks under the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) while the virgin plastic has one, which also called as "processing memory"
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