Plastic manufacturing technologies jeopardise food safety and the environment

TCD researchers have found that when plastics are moulded into water pipes, bottles, and household food prep products they undergo 'frozen-in' stress which can cause microscopic blisters which shed micropollutants when they burst open

Scientists have discovered that the way many everyday plastics are manufactured builds unseen stress into the material — stress that later drives the release of tiny plastic particles into our food and the environment.

The way many everyday plastics are manufactured builds unseen stress into the material — stress that later drives the release of tiny plastic particles into our food and the environment. 

Researchers based in Trinity College Dublin have discovered that when factories mould plastics into water pipes, bottles, and household products for food preparation, they cool the molten plastic quickly, so it keeps its shape. As it cools, the plastic naturally shrinks, causing a pressure build-up that ultimately gets frozen-in as an internal pressure or stress.