Plastic recycling and waste management are key challenges of environmental concerns. Plastics are currently widely used in various sectors, such as textiles, packaging, buildings, etc., leading to significant waste generation. During their lifecycle and recycling process, different constituents (i.e., polymeric material, additives, inorganic fillers) may be degraded and/or released in the environment.

Certain additives in plastic formulations require close monitoring due to rapidly evolving regulations. Notably, international regulations surrounding poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) get stricter every year, such as the limit of 50 mg/kg PFAS (maximum total fluorine including fluoropolymers) in packaging material. As a result, the plastic industry requires robust analytical methodologies to detect PFAS which may have been introduced throughout the products’ lifecycle. The measurement of individual PFAS’ concentration is hindered by the plethora of compounds presence (>14000). Hence, all PFAS should be measured in a sum parameter. Since the fluoride concentration in plastics is relatively low, total fluorine content can provide an adequate approximation for the total PFAS concentration.

The work aims to develop a robust fluorine-specific method using Combustion Ion Chromatography (CIC) and Inductively-Coupled Plasma tandem Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) for the investigation of various plastic materials including PE, PP, PET, PU and fluoropolymers. Solid plastic samples were combusted, and the absorption solution was analysed in two ways: a) online using IC and b) collected for offline analysis by ICP-MS/MS, where the BaF+ detection approach was used. The experimental Limit of Quantification (LoQ) was validated at 50 µg(F)/kg in real aqueous conditions. The ICP-MS/MS method was initially evaluated on reference plastic materials (i.e., LDPE and PU) before being applied to real samples. The determined concentrations were comparable to those obtained through two independent CIC methods with less than 20% error. This study highlights the potential of ICP-MS/MS for the quantification of fluorinated substances and shows potential to measure individual PFAS in plastic waste extracts with use of LC-ICP-MS/MS.