WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic

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... 

A similar effect may be expected from the EU Directive WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). This aims to control the use of certain materials and to encourage re-use and recycling of all electrical and electronic components (defined as that equipment which is dependant upon electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly ). For compounders, the immediate implication is to control the use of flame retardants, and a specific aim of the WEEE Directive is to reduce or eliminate halogenated flame retardant additives in the plastics compounds used for E and E products. The deadline for this is 2004, but there will obviously be much discussion as to which FRs should be phased out. 

The Eiuropean Union WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) legislation (Ref 111), several years in the making, mandates that, effective 2006, producers (i.e., companies whose names appear on the product) must be responsible for the take-back and disposition of their products at the end-of-life (EOL) of the product. The legislation is designed to tackle the fast increasing waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment. In Japan, the Home Appliance Recycle Law of 2001 mandates that 60% of the e-waste must be recycled. In the U.S., recycling programs are in place in many states and localities. 

WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (EU)... 

Directive 2002/96/EC ofthe European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (2003) Official Journal ofthe European Union, L37 13/02/2003, 24-39. 

The second possibility is the European waste legislation, which includes the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). The RoHS Directive is closely linked with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) which sets collection, recycling, and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of toxic e-waste. 

Keywords Brominated flame retardants, E-waste, Substance Flow Analysis SFA, Informal Recycling, Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment WEEE... 

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. 

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) legislation, 20 60 Waste exchanges, 21 407 Waste facilities, design of, 21 842 Waste fuel... 

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. 

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)... 

Also in February 2003, the European Union enacted the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (known as the WEEE Directive), calling for manufacturers to take end-of-life responsibility for their products (European Parliament, 2003b). Until August 15, 2005, this directive applies the principle of collective producer responsibility to wastes generated by electrical and electronic products. This principle allows companies to pool monies used for managing their wastes. However, for wastes generated by products manufactured after that date, it applies the principle of individual manufacturer responsibility, with the result... 

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. 

The analysis of plastics for hazardous metals e.g. Cd, Pb, Cr(total) and Hg is now essential on all products including plastics used in electric and electronic equipment sold within the European states. Directives for these products have been issued under Packaging Directive , End of Life Vehicle (ELV), Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and have been introduced to control the risk to health and waste disposal in the environment. The listed metals have been used extensively in the past as pigments, stabilisers and catalysts, especially PVC, and these toxic elements can be released over time into the environment. Therefore, polymer producers are advised that future products be lower than EU values or free of these metals. 

There is no shortage of examples that we could cite sorting technologies do exist, but they need to be improved and used in accordance with the particular source at hand. It is fruitless to put sensors in place to eliminate bromide plastics if we have NO polypropylene (PP) fiem waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or W3E) in the sources of EOL plastics. W3E does often contain bromine, unlike other sources. 

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) handbook... 

Over recent years, much environmental legislation appeared (mostly imposed on manufacturing industry). Energy Using Products (EuP), Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP), RoHS and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), to name but a few that directly impact on the manufacturing sectors that produce or use... 

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