Contamination in plastic recycling: Influence of metals on the quality of reprocessed plastic.

•Plastic from households contained higher metal concentrations than virgin plastic.•Reprocessed plastic from household waste had the highest metal concentrations.•PET plastic contained significantly more Sb than PE, PP and PS plastics.•“Dirt” has limited contribution to the presence of metals in waste plastics.•Higher recycling rates may lead to higher metal concentrations in recycled plastic.