[Preliminary results of microbiologic studies of the processing of contaminated plastics (recycling)]

Spores of Bacillus subtilis were mixed with 200 g of polyethylene-granulate. The result was an initial concentration of about 10(5) colony-forming-units per g polyethylene. This mixture passed an injection-moulding machine. The formed material was collected under sterile conditions, cut into pieces of about 1 cm and analysed for bacteria. In 4 of 23 cases Bacillus subtilis was present after passing the injection-moulding machine. A quantitative determination had the result, that about 3% of the spores could be found after the process of passing the injection-moulding machine.