Development of a method to identify recycled polycarbonate

To encourage the recycling of materials, the government provides subsidizes for manufacturers which use recycled materials to process final products. Unfortunately, this causes a camouflage of recycled-content products. Hence, a method to judge whether the material is truly made of previously used source needs to be established. In this study, we focus on recycled plastics, especially, polycarbonate (PC). Plastics are thermally and mechanically damaged during its molding process and practical use. This leads to faster degradation of recycled plastics than the corresponding pristine ones. We here propose how we can identify recycled PC taking into account the degradation kinetics.