End-of-life recovery

As the volumes of E E items have increased it is now seen that there must be adequate treatment options to replace landfill. Plastics, on average, represent 20% by weight of current E E products, with the share estimated to rise in the future. With end-of-life recovery being an integral part of the life cycle of plastics, appropriate measures must be taken to ensure the maximum value is obtained Ifom the plastics after their first life in E E equipment. 

This track record of environmental leadership by the US carpet industry has set the stage for the next phase of product stewardship - end-of-life recovery. Since most carpet components are derived from crude oil, this is the next logical area of focus. With over 2 million tonnes of old carpet going to the landfill each year, and that amount growing by approximately 2 to 3% per year, there is tremendous raw material and fuel value potential available. Details of the US carpet industry environmental accomplishments over the last decade can be found in the annual Sustainability Report issued by The Carpet and Rug Institute aud may be downloaded athttp //www.carpet-rug.com/pdf word docs/03 CRI-Sustainability-Report.pdf... 

In the early 1990s, legislation was proposed in the US, but no regulatory action was taken. The movement toward lead-free electronics emerged into concrete legislation in Europe on June 13, 2000 when the European Commission adopted two proposals A Directive on Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and a Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS). The WEEE requires Member States to set up take-back centers for end-of-life recovery at no cost to the consumer. The initial WEEE included the ROHS requirements and... 

MIXED COMBUSTION OF AUTOMOTIVE SHREDDER RESIDUES WITH MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE A SOUND ROUTE TO ENERGY RECOVERY FROM END OF LIFE VEHICLES... 

This paper considers plastics and their positive role during the lifetime of a car, the case of end-of-life vehicles, energy recovery from shredding refuse by means of co-... 

This paper explores the use of plastics in cars to make them more environmentally friendly. It lists major environmental issues. It then discusses in detail the positive role of plastics during the lifetime of a car (more plastics means less fuel consumption), the fact that automotive plastic parts are user-friendly and safe, the current and future uses of plastics in cars, recovery options for plastics in end-of-life vehicles, mechanical recycling (which is the best recovery option for many large automotive parts), energy recovery (the solution for small plastic parts), and feedstock (or chemical) recycling. Lastly, the way forward is considered. 

Designing products so that disposal of end of life is easy and energy efficient. Designing products so that the embodied energy can be recovered at end of life. For example, producing plastics that can be burned for energy recovery without producing... 

Therefore, after due consultation with the experts in the field and review of available C R systems, it is proposed to tackle the end-of-life FLs in two ways (1) deploy safe, fixed, and mobile lamp crushing systems to capture the mercury and reduce the waste volumes before transportation and (2) feed the crushed material and other components into a suitable recycling and recovery system to assure safe management. The review of available technologies has brought out two types of technologies that could be used in the proposed C R system ... 

Of other concern are mercury-containing lamps. At the end-of-life, compact fluorescent lamps/fluorescent tube lights (CFLs/FTFs) are either disposed in bulk (sold in auction) or disposed individually along with municipal waste. Proper and safe collection of these products would mean its intact collection, transportation and recovery of different components including mercury. The case study outlines the possible hazardous consequences due to improper handling of EoL CFLs and FTLs and proposes a future safe collection, recycling and disposal plan. 

Nike, Lego, Mattel, and Sony are some of the companies that have already phased-out PVC plastic. Ford, Peugeot, Daimler Benz, Opel, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota are all adopting PVC restrictions. These initiatives are driven by the EU Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles which requires automakers to meet reuse/recovery target of 85% of scrap vehicles by weight byJanuary 2006. 

Rios, R, Stuart, J. A., and Grant, E., Plastics disassembly versus bulk recycling Engineering design for end-of-life electronics resource recovery, Environ. Sci. Technol. 37, 5463-5470, 2003. 

The Italian association for plastics processors, Unionplast, has been collecting figures for many years with the aim of devising a feasible recovery and recycling system for end-of-life plastic products, and has carried out a market survey specifically regarding PVC pipes and pipe-fittings. This article provides details of the association s findings. UNIONPLAST... 

Fischer and co-workers undertook a LCA of the 26 organic solvents which they had already assessed in terms of EHS criteria (see above).They used the Eco-solvent software tool (http //www.sust-chem.ethz.ch/tools/ecosolvent/), which on the basis of industrial data considers the birth of the solvent (its petrochemical production) and its death by either a distillation process or treatment in a hazardous waste incineration plant. For both types of end-of-life treatment, environmental credits were granted where appropriate, e.g. solvent recovery and reuse upon distillation. The results of this assessment are shown in Figure 1.2. From an LCA perspective, tetrahydrofuran (THF), butyl acetate, cyclohexanone and 1-propanol are not good solvents. This is primarily due to the environmental... 

At end-of-life, value recovery is of the utmost importance. The highest value is obtained when the product is used for yet another service with little or no additional expenditure of resources. For example, a Pentium I personal computer considered outdated in the United States may be shipped to a less developed economy to provide simple services such as e-mail access. The worst end use would be casting the device into a landfill. Figure 5.2 shows the end-of-life values recovered by different... 

N. Ferguson and J. Browne, Issues in End-of-Life Product Recovery and Reverse Logistics, Production Planning and Control, 12(5), 534-547 (2001). 

With regard to the rules for comparison on the end-of-life stages. Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur le cycle de vie des produits, precedes et services (CIRAIG) draws our attention to the relevance of comparing different recovery scenarios. Indeed, it is normally impossible to directly compare the environmental impacts generated by two means of recovery of a product. If we want to process... 

End-of-life vehicles (ELVs) In 2012 Reuse and recycling 79.8% Reuse and recovery 81.5% 85% of material from ELVs must be recycled or reused and 95% recovered in 2015... 

The more recycling is considered (no associations difficult to deal with at end of life), the more it is preferred. While the sorting techniques have become more refined, we may still be faced for a long time to come with the recovery of polymer blends, which is becoming easier each day by combining formulation... 

By taking into account environmental and ethical criteria, it helps give plastics a sustainable character. With regard to the objectives set by the circular economy, these may be from agricultural waste (synthons produced by products of fermentation, fibers, etc.), and it is necessary to optimize their end of life (recycling, compost, or even incineration with energy recovery). 

SCH 13] Schmid A., Naquin A., Gourdon R., Incidence of the level of deconstruction on material reuse, recycling and recovery from end-of life vehicles an industrial-scale experimental Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 72, pp. 118-126,2013. 

Binnemans K, Jones PT (2014) Perspectives for the recovery of rare earths from end-of-life fluorescent lamps. J Rare Earths 32(3) 195-200... 

Yang Y (2014) Recovery of rare earth metals fiom end-of-life permanent magnets an overview. In Proceedings of ERES2014—1st European rare earth resources conference, Milos, Greece, 04-07 Sept 2014, pp 429-445... 

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