End-of-Life Disposal

Recycling has become a major issue in the plastics industry in the past eight or ten years. The amount of plastics mechanically recycled in Western Europe at present is about 2.5 M tonnes/y, with feedstock recycling still less than 0.5 M tonnes, according to APME (Plastics Europe). 

Until recently 96% of all discarded electrical and electronic equipment in Europe was landfilled. This amounted to about 14 kg of equipment per inhabitant every year, and the practice is now to be banned. All post-consumer electrical and electronic products will have to be collected and subjected to specific disposal procedures. The WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) (February 2003) requires the manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment appliances to bear the cost of recovery and recycling. It is intended to ensure the recovery of 300,000 tonnes of electrical and electronic plastics waste material per year by 2006, the date by which each member state should be collecting 4 kg per inhabitant by separate collection procedures. 

WEEE and another Directive (see next paragraph) affect the additives business for a number of reasons. Firstly, the need for recycling may be a consideration in the selection of additives for new electrical products. Secondly, WEEE requires all plastics products containing brominated flame retardants to be separated out before recycling, energy recovery or disposal. Waste collection facilities have to be set up by August 13, 2005. 

Because polybrominated diphenyl ether FRs, along with heavy metals, are to be harmed from all new electrical appliances under the EU s Restriction on Hazardous Substances Directive (2002/95/EC), any recovered materials of these kinds must be directed to non-electrical 

The Karlsruhe Research Centre in Germany has foimd that bromine and hydrobromic acid can be recovered from post-consumer electrical and electronic waste containing brominated flame retardants. Incineration of mixed waste containing high percentages of similar products did not cause a significant increase in dioxin production. 

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Cost. Ideally, if the MSA was completely recovered and reused, only the initial charge of MSA would be needed. Because of normal losses or chemical reactions, some amount of fresh MSA must be added periodically. Thus the purchase of MSA represents both an upfront capital cost and an ongoing operating cost. The cost of end-of-life disposal or reprocessing of the MSA must also be considered as an operating expense. 

Recent legislation issues in Europe have involved the end-of-life disposal of vehicles and electrical goods. Food contact legislation has been updated. Plasticisers, brominated flame retardants and biocides have also been the subject of EU legislation. The EU s proposals on the testing of chemicals are expected to create difficulties for the plastics and additives industries, although compensations may become apparent. 

To determine the impact of potential use of LNG, the LCC technique is used. This is the holistic analysis of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an asset from its initial acquisition to its end of life disposal. It is typically used to determine the most economically rational option between competing alternatives that cannot be split based on technical appropriateness. 

The nanomaterial s full lifecycle is addressed, from material sourcing, through production and use, to the end-of-life disposal or recycling. 

Product design can impact transport-intensity through the physical characteristics of the product, its density, the choice of materials (including packaging materials), the ease of recycling, reuse and end-of-life disposal. 

The plutonium-based fuel form to be used in plutonium-burning reactors is closely coupled to a particular reactor design. However, several general criteria apply to all circumstances. Fuel forms chosen for use in any type of plutonium-bumer should (a) possess high bumup capability, (b) provide a high degree of operational safety, (c) offer the cheapest and easiest fabrication methods with minimum hazardous waste generation, and (d) offer the cheapest and easiest end-of-life disposal option. 

There is also a general interest in the sustainable production of chemicals and/or materials from renewable biomass feedstock. Indeed, they are regarded as promising materials that could replace petrochemical based polymers, reduce global dependence on fossil fuel sources and provide simplified end-of-life disposal [34]. The major chemical constituents derived from low-value biomass (i.e. lignocellulosic source) with potential to combine with polyolefins are cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin and suberin. 

Caution must therefore be observed before concluding that polymers based on fossil resources are less sustainable than bio-based polymers, particularly as they have not yet been shown to have better technological behaviour than the commodity synthetic polymers. Indeed, some properties are noticeably inferior. Moreover, if renewable energy is available cheaply in the future, many synthetic polymer feedstocks could be made from natural products. For example, ethene can be manufactured from ethanol, which may in turn be manufactured from carbohydrates. In the short term, polymer feedstocks from natural and fossil resources will co-exist and the primary determinant of the proportion of each utilised will depend on the relative ecological benefits and economics of each. Over the next decade the standards organisations will need to come to terms with the reality that end-of-life disposal is just one of the factors to be weighed in the ecological balance. 

End-of-life disposal has been cited as a driving factor for the elimination of lead. When the WEEE legislation regarding the eUmination of lead from electronics is put into effect, the ability to recycle products at the end-of-life may be compromised. The technology exists to recycle Sn-Pb soldered assemblies, but it is anticipated that the mixed metal stream resulting from various replacement metallizations and solders wDl cause the amount of recyclable materials to decrease and thus increase the amount that goes to landfills [26]. 

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