Castro Varela, GabrielaFernández Varela, VictoriaRamil Criado, MaríaCobo Golpe, MiguelBlázquez Blázquez, EnriqueCerrada García, María LuisaBernabé Virseda, IgnacioMartínez Urreaga, JoaquínUlagares de la Orden Hernández, MaríaRodríguez Pereiro, Isaac2025-10-132025-10-132025-06-01Castro Varela, G., Fernández Varela, V., Ramil Criado, M., Cobo Golpe, M., Blázquez Blázquez, E., Cerrada García, M.L., Bernabé Virseda, I., Martínez Urreaga, J., Ulagares de la Orden Hernández, M. and Rodríguez Pereiro, I. The fingerprint of pesticides in agricultural used polyethylene. Waste Management, 200, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2025.1147670956-053Xhttps://hdl.handle.net/10347/43037The widespread use of polyethylene (PE) materials in agriculture through mulch films, tunnels, greenhouse covers, irrigation pipes and tying tapes has been instrumental in increasing crop productivity and reducing water demand. However, it raised concerns regarding the interaction between PE and pesticides sprayed on crops. This research strives to study the fingerprint of pesticides in agricultural PE by analyzing new items, end-of-life agricultural plastics and a range of samples corresponding to the recycling of aged PE, from sized and washed flakes to second-hand pellets and plant protection tubes elaborated from recycled plastic. Total concentrations determined for a selection of fungicides and insecticides in the abovementioned materials varied between 4.7 ng g-1 and 4179 ng g-1, with the fungicides cyprodinil and difenoconazole showing the highest concentrations. Furthermore, transformation products of pesticides phased out more than 40 years ago, e.g., p,p'-DDE, were found in some PE items. The survival of pesticides at temperatures above the melting point of this polymer was confirmed in laboratory-scale melting experiments, as well as through the analysis of second-hand pellets. Experiments carried out using pesticide-polluted dripline pipes confirmed the migration of these compounds from PE to flowing water.eng© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Agricultural plastic wasteLeachingPesticidesPolyethyleneRecyclingThermal degradationjournal article10.1016/j.wasman.2025.114767open access