DNA Marker for Recycled Material

[Sustainability]

Hello All,

Have any one heard of DNA markers for recycled materials to track previous history of the material or to identify how many times the materials is recycled? What I knew is, it is a chemical additive that can be custom made to track any property of interest, for example production date? I really appreciate if anyone could share if they know about this marker, like how it works and how it is used.

Thank you

Regards
-Mouli

[brentb]

Excuse my ignorance, but do plastic resins have chromosomes?

Keep on Molding!

brent

[Suhas]

Sustainability,
I do not believe it is for regrind or properties. It so happened that some people were selling 'pirated material'. So the big guys started adding certain inert compounds that that only they could identify. So if someone had issues, they could send the molded part, get it analyzed and confirm the resin.
If you think of regrind or properties, I think it will be difficult to do so, not impossible. Properties based on heat history is also time dependent. In other words, leaving the plastic in the barrel for 20 minutes would be the same as running it through the barrel 5 times with cycle times of a fast X minutes where X is may be 2 to 3 minutes.
Hope this helps.
Suhas
Brent, It is those old folks whose chromosomes keep lingering in the resin that cause the excitement. - had to be politically correct :)

[Sustainability]

Sustainability,
I do not believe it is for regrind or properties. It so happened that some people were selling 'pirated material'. So the big guys started adding certain inert compounds that that only they could identify. So if someone had issues, they could send the molded part, get it analyzed and confirm the resin.
If you think of regrind or properties, I think it will be difficult to do so, not impossible. Properties based on heat history is also time dependent. In other words, leaving the plastic in the barrel for 20 minutes would be the same as running it through the barrel 5 times with cycle times of a fast X minutes where X is may be 2 to 3 minutes.
Hope this helps.
Suhas
Brent, It is those old folks whose chromosomes keep lingering in the resin that cause the excitement. - had to be politically correct :)

Hello Suhas,

Would you be able to direct me to OEM which supplies that kind of resin? From what I heard is, upto 6 character can be tracked with one DNA marker, or one for each character, not sure.
I completely understand and agree, 20 mins in barrel make have same effect as processing it five times.
Any literature reference on this trackers?
On another thought, Can this be used to see if my part supplier is using regrind in his material?

Thank you

Regards
-Mouli