Waste from electric and electronic Equipment

Isolating agent in small capacitors Cl < 42% Closed Waste from electric and electronic equipment/ household waste Possible in state-of-the-art sorting plants... 

EEA - European Environmental Agency (2003) Waste from electric and electronic equipment -quantities, dangerous substances and treatment methods. http //eea.eioneLeuropa.eu/Public/irc/ eionet-circle/etc waste/library l=/working j>apers/weeepdf/ EN 1.0 a=d. Accessed 12 Nov 2010... 

Waste from electrical and electronic equipment arises at the sorting plant, where the frame, the printed circuit board PCB, the cathode ray tube, etc. are separated for recycling. The remaining plastics fraction is in part flame-retarded, hence contains brominated and antimony compounds. The number of WEEE recycling plants is growing, so that the logistics are no longer a major problem. 

The European Union s directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) requires companies selling electronic products in Europe to set up end-of-life collection and recycling systems for these products by August 2005. 

Significant effort has recently been put in for the elimination of polymer wastes from electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) by pyrolysis. WEEE includes mainly epoxy resins and styrene polymers. They often contain brominated aromatics, which are highly contaminant. However, their elimination by simple thermal treatments is no longer possible as one of the most important drawbacks in dealing with thermal treatment of WEEE is the likely production of supertoxic halogenated dibenzodiox-ins and dibenzofurans. A pyrolysis method at low temperature range was developed, which limited the formation of such toxic by-products and reduced pyrolysis costs, even at relatively long residence times in the reactor. 

LEGISLATION ON THE RESTRICTIONS ON CERTAIN HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES (ROHS) AND THE WASTE FROM ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (WEEE) DIRECTIVES IS THE BIGGEST CHANGE THE SMT INDUSTRY HAS FACED IN MORE THAN A DECADE. AS THE COMPLIANCE DATES DRAW NEAR, MANY COMPANIES ARE EXAMINING THEIR CHECKLISTS TO BE SURE THEY HAVEN T MISSED ANYTHING. SMT MAGAZINE SPOKE WITH SOME INDUSTRY EXPERTS TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH LEAD-FREE. 

This chapter explores the environmental implications of lead-free vs. lead-based solder. It presents an environmental approach known as industrial ecology and analyzes the present lead-based vs. lead-free systems using this approach. The sources, availability, and extraction of required alternative metals are explored. The quantity of lead utilized for electronics is put into perspective relative to other lead applications. Disposal concerns regarding landfill and incineration are addressed. Finally, the value of recycling electronics at end-of-life is illustrated by the anticipated copper recovery required under the European Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). 

Proposal for a Directive on Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment 76/769/EEC, Fourth Draft, European Commission Directorate General XI Brussels, Belgium May 10, 2000. 

European Environmental Bureau (EEB) s Comments on the Commission s Proposal for a Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment (EEE), Sep. 2000. 

To illustrate the concept of external (or damage) cost, we can first look at the emissions from Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) to the air. The different points leading to the evaluation of emission s impact are the following [36] ... 

Lymberidi, E. (2001). Towards Waste-Free Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The examples are cited from Tadatomo Suga, University of Tokyo, Good practice on the substitution of heavy metals in... 

H. Boerrigter, Implementation of Thermal Processes for Feedstock Recycling from Plastic Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Netherlands Energy Research Foundation, Report ECN-C-00-114, 2000. 

EnvirOTimental trends are having an impact on electrical applications. Waste legislation includes WEEE (Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive 2002/%/EC which holds producers responsible for collection and recovery of materials at end of Ufe. Additionally, materials that contain bromine-based flame retardants must be removed from the waste and handled separately. In restrictions on use of hazardous substances (ROHS) directive 2002/95/EC, the use of various hazardous materials is restricted. These include lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ether. Since the introduction of Blue Angel in Germany in 1978, several other eco-labels have been implemented. These include TCO (Sweden), Nordic Swan, Milieukeur (Netherlands), and the EU Ecolabel. The general purpose of these labels is to provide cmisumers with information relating to the environmental impact of the products they purchase. 

The first stage of the cyclohexanone or CreaSolv process involves density separation, which allows the separation of PVC or styrenics, respectively, from other identified polymers in waste originating from electrical and electronic equipment. The density of PVC or styrenics overlaps with filled polypropylene (PP) and rigid polyurethane, and PVC and styrenics even overlap each other therefore, density-based polymer separation alone will not permit pure recycled polymers to be obtained. 

After the separation of PVC from the mixture of waste originating from electrical and electronic equipment, the occlusion of plasticisers needs to be addressed. 

Muhammad, C., Onwudili, J.A., WiUiams, P.T., 2015a. Catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastic from electrical and electronic equipment. Journal of Analytical and Apphed Pyrolysis 113 (0), 332-339. 

Friege H (2012) Resource recovery from used electric and electronic equipment alternative options for resource conservation, Waste Mgt Res 30(9)... 

Convention on Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and 69 ratified the ban on all kinds of hazardous waste export from wealthy OECD-countries to non-OECD countries, large amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are shipped overseas for recycling, the majority to China as reported by Brigden et al. [2] and Puckett et al. [3], lesser quantities to India and Western Africa reported by Kuper and Hojsik [4]. WEEE contains a variety of harmful substances like endocrine disruptors and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Additionally, hazardous substances may be formed during informal recycling. This often practised informal treatment without proper equipment for metal extraction and labour safety heavily affects the environment and human health of workers and the inhabitants of whole stretches of land. 

The introduction of EU directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Reduction of Hazardous Substances has highlighted the need for precise and repeatable elemental analysis of heavy metals in the plastics production process. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has emerged as the most economical and effective analytical tool for achieving this. A set of certified standards, known as TOXEL, is now available to facilitate XRF analyses in PE. Calibration with TOXEL standards is simplified by the fact that XRF is a multi-element technique. Therefore a single set of the new standards can be used to calibrate several heavy elements, covering concentrations from trace level to several hundred ppm. This case study is the analysis of heavy metals in PE using an Epsilon 5 XRF spectrometer. 

The German Environmental Ministry is reported to have attacked European proposals to ban substances such as specific flame retardants in forthcoming regulations for recycling electrical and electronic equipment. Initial proposals from the EU Commission on the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment, include a phaseout of PBDEs, despite preliminary findings under EU risk assessment that there is no need for risk reduction from the two types, decaBDE and octaBDE mainly used in such equipment. The Ministry is said to be concerned at the excessively prescriptive and restrictive system being proposed, and that substance restrictions should not be addressed in waste legislation, but should be based on life cycle risk assessments. 

R. Balart, L. Sanchez, J. L6pez, and A. Jimenez, Kinetic analysis of thermal degradation of recycled polycarbonate/acrylonitrile-butadi-ene-styrene mixtures from waste electric and electronic equipment,... 

P.A. Tarantili, A.N. Mitsakaki, and M.A. Petoussi, Processing and properties of engineering plastics recycled from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), Polym. Degrad. Stab., In Press, Accepted Manuscript, 2010. 

The environmental impact of waste disposal and of chemical use in Europe has led to three legislative actions that, in today s global economy, greatly affect flame-retardant use and research. These actions go by the acronyms of RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemical substances). These actions are discussed in detail in Chapter 22, but need to be mentioned here as they are clear examples of how changing regulations affect flame-retardant use, selection, and new fire-safety developments. The first one, RoHS, refers to how new items are manufactured, and specifically bans chemicals and elements of environmental and toxicological concern in Europe. One fall-out item of RoHS is the move from a lead-based solder on circuit... 

Schlummer, M., Maurer, A., et al (2006) Report recycling of flame-retarded plastics from waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). Waste Management and Research, 24(6) 573-583. 

Today important flows of plastics originate in mandatory recycling schemes, such as those imposed by take-back obligations on packaging, End-of life vehicles, or waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). For such materials, the drive for collection and recycling is not normally economic, but mandatory. In snch cases, there is often a dump fee, to be paid for farther processing a stream of waste plastics into recycled products. The value of such fees varies from some 50 /tonne for injection into blast fnmaces in the European Community to as much as 50-100 kYen ( 370-750 /tonne)... 

Leaching and electrolysis processes can be used for metal recovery from waste electrical and electronic equipment. Metals such as Ag, Au, Cu, Pb, Pd, Sn, are dissolved from shredded electronic scrap in an acidic aqueous chloride electrolyte by oxidizing them with aqueous dissolved chlorine species. In the electrochemical reactor, chlorine is generated at the anode for use as the oxidant in the leach reactor and the dissolved metals are deposited from the leach solution at the cathode. The very low concentrations of the precious metal ions require the use of porous electrodes with high specific surface areas and high mass transport rates to achieve economically adequate reactor productivities and space-time yields [72]. 

Other items such as medical devices and meters that use plastic parts are exempt from the RoHS requirement until such time as the EU sees fit to come up with specifications before including them. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) are defined as those requiring electricity or electromagnetic fields to operate them and most of the modern equipment contains plastics to some extent. 

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