Stay Away from Black Plastic

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Throw out your black plastic utensils. A recent NY Times article about the toxicity of most black plastic products “Black Plastic Kitchen Tools Might Expose You to Toxic Chemicals,” created renewed awareness about the dangers of black plastic products. It’s not just the black ones, though they are the worst because they have a lot more discarded toxic e-waste in them. It's also not just utensils. Anything, including toys and hair accessories, made with black plastic likely contain highly toxic chemicals, such as hazardous flame retardants, some of which have been banned, lead, antimony, chromium and mercury. 

Products made with recycled black plastic, such as spatulas and other kitchen utensils, have been found to contain a lot of black plastic from dismantled electronics turned in by consumers for recycling. (TVs. computers.....) Typically the products’ housing contains toxic flame retardants, Studies have linked flame retardants to cancer, endocrine and immune systems disruption, thyroid dysfunction, neurological disorders, and reproductive and developmental harm. In addition to their toxicity, flame retardant chemicals also bioaccumulate in the body. They stay there and pile up. 

The reason black plastic items contain a disproportionate amount of e-waste, and therefore a toxic mix of hazardous chemicals, is that black plastic is not easy to sort or recycle. (This pertains to the sorting technology’s  poor ability to identify the chemical make-up of plastic that is black.) Therefore, because there isn’t a lot of usable black plastic in the recycling pipeline that is not from e-waste, discarded black e-waste often gets used instead to make black plastic products. Kitchen utensils are especially dangerous to use because the chemicals tend to leach out when the utensils touch hot surfaces like pots and pans. This exposes food to these chemicals. They are also released into the air and can be breathed in. 

But black plastic toys, hair accessories, cutlery, jewelry, glasses and many other products can also expose consumers to these hidden chemicals. Contaminated toys are particularly bad because they are handled by children, who often put their hands, and toys, in their mouths, potentially ingesting these toxic chemicals.

While not every single product made of recycled black plastic is harboring these unintended chemicals, studies have found that the vast majority do. A 2024 study done by the non-profit Toxic-Free Future found that 85 percent of tested household black plastic products were contaminated with toxic flame retardant chemicals, including the banned deca-BDE. 

Of course, the most immediate and effective way to reduce or eliminate your exposure to these chemicals is to get rid of black plastic products in your home or office and replace them with non-plastic alternatives. Stainless steel or wood kitchen utensils are best. Toxic-Free Future also emphasizes the need to improve regulation of the chemicals’ use in the first place and to better regulate the recycling infrastructure. 

"Without regulations to end the use of harmful chemicals and regulate recycling practices, toxic flame retardants will continue to enter our homes through the back door and show up in products where they’re not needed,” the non-profit states on its website. 

One of the first scientists to sound the alarm about black plastic was Andrew Turner, of the University of Plymouth in the UK, who wrote in the scientific publication "Environment International" in 2018 ".....there is mounting evidence that the demand for black plastics in consumer products is partly met by sourcing material from the plastic housings of end-of-life waste electronic and electrical equipment.... (This) has the potential to introduce restricted and hazardous substances into the recyclate, including brominated flame retardants (BFRs), Sb, a flame retardant synergist, and the heavy metals, Cd, Cr, Hg and Pb."

While black plastic may be the most hazardous, all plastics contain toxic chemicals and should be avoided as much as possible, especially in cooking utensils, food storage containers, toys, personal care products, shower curtains, clothing and everything that can expose us to these chemicals. 

Here are some tips to finding safer alternatives to plastic.