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I just picked up a month old D300s and I noticed a few things.

First off, the body came with the new BF-1B front cap which texture now suggests it's made of recycled plastics.

The WB / QUAL / ISO control dome is also made of recycled plastic.

Both have textured grayish colour. My WB / QUAL / ISO buttons are black and the dome is gray, really stands out. I've had two D300 bodies before and I can tell the previous dome was all black and matched the colour of the 3 buttons and the finish was smooth.

I see a lot of that gray plastic on my wife's D7000 as well.

I'm partially glad to see that Nikon is thinking green here, but I am wondering about future effects this may have. I know that recycled plastic doesn't last as long and cracks under longer exposure to sun/heat.

Never seen that before. They probably just started this, since i have no parts that resemble this on my d7000.

There is no way to determine whether these components are molded from recycled plastic by the colour and texture appearance. It would require admition from the plastics molding company or specific analytical instrumentation analysis: laser interferometry, GC-MS, thermal cycler.

Generally, these small parts are never molded from recycled plastics. Plastics manufacturers published specifications data are always for neat resin or specific listed additive grades (glass or mineral filled, UV stabilized, impact modified, etc.). Some plastics companies specify X% regrind (always low, 3 - 5%, original, not post consumer) does not materially affect resin performance. Plastics molders use whatever the part is specified in, to change the material is a contract breach, and certainly in Asian business practices this would probably sabotage the entire business relation between Nikon and the plastics molding family of companies.

Colour is achieved via the neat resin, always amber, black or clear, or via addition of a colourant, or painting. Texture is achieved via the mold tool surface. Nothing else.

The knob pictured appears a two-shot part. Unusual, but sometimes this process can affect shot-1 resin's colour. In high volume plastics parts' manufacturing Nikon may use multiple factories, those factories may use multiple plastics resin suppliers, and plastics resin lot to lot colour change can occur. The front cap part you mention with colour difference may not be a Nikon design part, instead it may be a commodity part they specify and as such material and colour is not their control.