April 22, 2008 7:45 AM PDT
Polypropylene, or PP, is used in the products in this photograph as well as diapers, pails, dishes, candy containers, and lab equipment. The purple product pictured here is made from recycled polypropylene from Recycline.
Makers of electronics packaging, including Microsoft, are increasingly using the recycled material instead of toxic PVC.
Polypropylene is regarded as a relatively benign plastic. But Japanese researchers have found that tiny pellets of polypropylene floating in the ocean concentrate poisons including DDT and PCBs at levels one million times stronger than in the water.
Photo by Corinne Schulze/CNET News.com
Caption by Elsa Wenzel
