Acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) plastic is a widely used engineering thermoplastic. ABS is also an interesting material for recycling. In the present study, two pieces of ABS plastic from waste computer equipment were reprocessed. A torque rheometer was used to simulate reprocessing. To identify the additives used in the recycled ABS plastics and understand the effect of reprocessing on the recycled plastics from several aspects, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to analyse the extracts from recycled ABS plastics before and after reprocessing. The effects of reprocessing temperature and reprocessing cycle on some additives, mainly antioxidants and lubricants, were investigated. Plastic processing led to additive loss because of volatilisation, decomposition, or conversion, particularly at high temperatures and during multiple processing cycles.
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