Time-series product and substance flow analyses of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment in China

Given the amounts of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (EoL-EEE) being generated and their contents of both harmful and valuable materials, the EoL-EEE issue should be regarded not only as an emerging environmental problem but also as a resource management strategy in China. At present, in order to provide the basis for managing EoL-EEE at both product and substance levels in China, it is necessary to carry out a quantitative analysis on EoL-EEE and to determine how much of it will be generated and how much materials and substances it contains. In this study, the possession and obsolescence amounts of five types of household appliance (HA) including television (TV) sets and the amounts of substances contained in EoL TV sets were estimated using time-series product flow analysis (PFA) and substance flow analysis (SFA). The results of PFA indicated that the total possession amounts of those five types of HAs will exceed 3.1 billion units in 2030, which will be two times higher than those in 2010. In addition, it was estimated that cumulatively over 4.8–5.1 billion units of these five types of EoL HA would be obsoleted between 2010–2030. The results of SFA on TV sets indicated that the generated amounts of most of the less common metals and a part of common metals such as copper (Cu) would tend to decrease, whereas those of other common metals such as iron (Fe) as well as precious metals would tend to increase in EoL TV sets in 2015–2030. The results of this study provide a quantitative basis for helping decision makers develop strategic policies for the management of EoL-EEE considering both environmental and resource aspects. Moreover, a calculation scheme of obsolete HAs presented in this study can be applied to estimate other types of EoL durable good. Meanwhile, the frameworks of this study will help not only the policy decision makers in the Chinese government but also those in developing countries that are facing similar problems.     

Resource-availability scenario analysis for formal and informal recycling of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment in China

In strategic end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (EoL EEE) management, it has become important to not only avoid the negative environmental impacts but also enhance the positive effects of secondary resource utilization. This is especially true in emerging countries such as China, where medium- to long-term increases in the amount of EoL EEE generation are projected. This study aims to assess the resource availability potential for EoL EEE recycling based on penetration scenarios for formal and/or informal treatment options in China. We categorized substances contained in EoL television sets and personal computers into environmental, resource, and economic aspects under consideration of product transitions. Barium and copper have a high negative potential impact on human health and/or the ecosystem. Focusing on metals with a high resource potential, the resource availability is assessed under different treatment options using characterization factors identified through a life-cycle impact assessment method, the ReCiPe 2008. The results suggest that copper and lead recycling could alleviate the increase in mining costs of resource utilization. Scenario analysis for penetration of formal and informal recycling options indicated that the difference in the alleviated mining costs between the status quo and short-term transition projections until 2030 corresponds to 2.1–2.4 billion dollars.     

报废汽车电器电子产品回收利用方法初探

在分析国内外报废汽车电器电子产品分类、回收利用现状、存在问题和严峻的环境影响基础上,与常规电器电子产品处理方案进行对比,对其进行资源化探讨,并提出了相关建议.     

Waste management of electric and electronic equipment: comparative analysis of end-of-life strategies

This article analyzes diverse aspects of the waste management of electronic and electric equipment. The scope of the study focuses on end-of-life strategies currently implemented in industrialized economies such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union. The objective is a comparative analysis of such strategies in order to identify logistic issues that may contribute to the further improvement of waste management policies. The results indicate that although all strategies follow the extended producer responsibility principle, in practice several logistic differences arise due to particular interpretations of the concept. In general, it was observed that a direct comparison is rather difficult since the strategies consider different legal frameworks, they cover different types and numbers of products, and the resultant mass flows and related operational costs are highly context-dependent variables. Therefore, it is not possible to indicate which strategy presents the highest overall efficiency. The study concludes that a little contribution is feasible if the advantages and weaknesses of the models depicted and discussed here are considered in further regulatory decisions.Extended version of the poster presentation A comparative analysis of end-of-life strategies for home appliances in Japan, America, and the European Union, accepted at the 31st Annual Meeting of Environmental Systems Research, Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), October 24–25, 2003, Kitakyushu, Japan     

Recycling-oriented characterization of small waste electrical and electronic equipment

As a result of the continuous change in the design and function of consumer electrical and electronic products, the mechanical and material properties of the obsolete products, called waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE), are highly variable. The variability within WEEE is explained by the number of different appliances, and the heterogeneity in composition of any given appliance.This paper reports on an extended investigation of the properties of WEEE, in particular small appliances. The investigation focuses on the analysis of the composition of about 700 single appliances. Firstly, analytical methods to characterize the waste equipment are described. The results of the experimental analyses show that the mechanical properties, the material composition, the polymer composition and the chemical composition of WEEE vary not only between equipment types with different functions, but also between single appliances within one equipment type. Data on hazardous and valuable substances in selected equipment types are presented.Using detailed data on the composition of individual appliances to calculate rates of recovery for assumed recycling processes demonstrates that the performance of recycling processes depends strongly on the composition of WEEE. Recycling-oriented characterization is, therefore, a systematic approach to support the design and the operation of recycling processes.     

电子废弃物管理立法研究

我国是世界上最大的家用电器生产和消费国之一,如今面临着越来越严重的电子废弃物处理的压力.而我国电子废弃物管理方面还存在着思想障碍、体制障碍、机制障碍、政策障碍以及法制障碍等问题,急需立法给予解决.我国电子废弃物管理立法应当着重建立如下法律制度:电子废弃物的管理体制制度、生产者责任延伸制度、押金制度、产品成分标识制度、新鲜材料税或垃圾填埋税等税收制度、资源价格制度、电子废弃物中介组织和服务制度、电子废弃物的科技支撑和示范制度、绿色消费和绿色采购制度.     

An analysis of the composition and metal contamination of plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

The compositions of three WEEE plastic batches of different origin were investigated using infrared spectroscopy, and the metal content was determined with inductively coupled plasma. The composition analysis of the plastics was based mainly on 14 samples collected from a real waste stream, and showed that the major constituents were high impact polystyrene (42 wt%), acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene copolymer (38 wt%) and polypropylene (10 wt%). Their respective standard deviations were 21.4%, 16.5% and 60.7%, indicating a considerable variation even within a single batch. The level of metal particle contamination was found to be low in all samples, whereas wood contamination and rubber contamination were found to be about 1 wt% each in most samples. In the metal content analysis, iron was detected at levels up to 700 ppm in the recyclable waste plastics fraction, which is of concern due to its potential to catalyse redox reactions during melt processing and thus accelerate the degradation of plastics during recycling. Toxic metals were found only at very low concentrations, with the exception of lead and cadmium which could be detected at 200 ppm and 70 ppm levels, respectively, but these values are below the current threshold limits of 1000 ppm and 100 ppm set by the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive.     

Management of waste electrical and electronic equipment in two EU countries: A comparison

The paper presents some data regarding waste electrical and electronic (WEEE) management in one of the founding countries of the EU, Italy, and in a recent entry into the EU, Romania. The aim of this research was to analyze some problems that countries entering the EU will have to solve with respect to WEEE management. The experiences of Italy and Romania could provide an interesting reference point. The strengths and weaknesses that the two EU countries have encountered can be used in order to give a more rational plan for other countries. In Italy the increase of WEEE collection was achieved in parallel with the increase of the efficiency of selective Municipal Solid Waste collection. In Romania, pilot experiences were useful to increase the awareness of the population. The different interests of the two populations towards recyclable waste led to a different scenario: in Romania all types of WEEE have been collected since its entrance into the EU; in Italy the “interest” in recycling is typically related to large household appliances, with a secondary role of lighting equipment.     

Chemical hazards associated with treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment

This review paper summarizes the existing knowledge on the chemical hazards associated with recycling and other end-of-life treatment options of waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste). The hazards arise from the presence of heavy metals (e.g., mercury, cadmium, lead, etc.), flame retardants (e.g., pentabromophenol, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA), etc.) and other potentially harmful substances in e-waste. If improperly managed, the substances may pose significant human and environmental health risks. The review describes the potentially hazardous content of e-waste, examines the existing e-waste management practices and presents scientific data on human exposure to chemicals, workplace and environmental pollution associated with the three major e-waste management options, i.e., recycling, incineration and landfilling. The existing e-waste management practices and associated hazards are reviewed separately for developed and developing countries. Finally, based on this review, the paper identifies gaps in the existing knowledge and makes some recommendations for future research.     

Bio-processing of solid wastes and secondary resources for metal extraction - A review

Metal containing wastes/byproducts of various industries, used consumer goods, and municipal waste are potential pollutants, if not treated properly. They may also be important secondary resources if processed in eco-friendly manner for secured supply of contained metals/materials. Bio-extraction of metals from such resources with microbes such as bacteria, fungi and archaea is being increasingly explored to meet the twin objectives of resource recycling and pollution mitigation. This review focuses on the bio-processing of solid wastes/byproducts of metallurgical and manufacturing industries, chemical/petrochemical plants, electroplating and tanning units, besides sewage sludge and fly ash of municipal incinerators, electronic wastes (e-wastes/PCBs), used batteries, etc. An assessment has been made to quantify the wastes generated and its compositions, microbes used, metal leaching efficiency etc. Processing of certain effluents and wastewaters comprising of metals is also included in brief. Future directions of research are highlighted.     

A model for estimation of potential generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Brazil

Sales of electrical and electronic equipment are increasing dramatically in developing countries. Usually, there are no reliable data about quantities of the waste generated. A new law for solid waste management was enacted in Brazil in 2010, and the infrastructure to treat this waste must be planned, considering the volumes of the different types of electrical and electronic equipment generated.This paper reviews the literature regarding estimation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), focusing on developing countries, particularly in Latin America. It briefly describes the current WEEE system in Brazil and presents an updated estimate of generation of WEEE. Considering the limited available data in Brazil, a model for WEEE generation estimation is proposed in which different methods are used for mature and non-mature market products.The results showed that the most important variable is the equipment lifetime, which requires a thorough understanding of consumer behavior to estimate. Since Brazil is a rapidly expanding market, the “boom” in waste generation is still to come. In the near future, better data will provide more reliable estimation of waste generation and a clearer interpretation of the lifetime variable throughout the years.     

New characterisation method of electrical and electronic equipment wastes (WEEE)

Innovative separation and beneficiation techniques of various materials encountered in electrical and electronic equipment wastes (WEEE) is a major improvement for its recycling. Mechanical separation-oriented characterisation of WEEE was conducted in an attempt to evaluate the amenability of mechanical separation processes. Properties such as liberation degree of fractions (plastics, metals ferrous and non-ferrous), which are essential for mechanical separation, are analysed by means of a grain counting approach. Two different samples from different recycling industries were characterised in this work. The first sample is a heterogeneous material containing different types of plastics, metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), printed circuit board (PCB), rubber and wood. The second sample contains a mixture of mainly plastics. It is found for the first sample that all aluminium particles are free (100%) in all investigated size fractions. Between 92% and 95% of plastics are present as free particles; however, 67% in average of ferromagnetic particles are liberated. It can be observed that only 42% of ferromagnetic particles are free in the size fraction larger than 20 mm. Particle shapes were also quantified manually particle by particle. The results show that the particle shapes as a result of shredding, turn out to be heterogeneous, thereby complicating mechanical separation processes. In addition, the separability of various materials was ascertained by a sink–float analysis and eddy current separation. The second sample was separated by automatic sensor sorting in four different products: ABS, PC–ABS, PS and rest product. The fractions were characterised by using the methodology described in this paper. The results show that the grade and liberation degree of the plastic products ABS, PC–ABS and PS are close to 100%. Sink–float separation and infrared plastic identification equipment confirms the high plastic quality. On the basis of these findings, a global separation flow sheet is proposed to improve the plastic separation of WEEE.     

Recycling of non-metallic fractions from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): A review

The world’s waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) consumption has increased incredibly in recent decades, which have drawn much attention from the public. However, the major economic driving force for recycling of WEEE is the value of the metallic fractions (MFs). The non-metallic fractions (NMFs), which take up a large proportion of E-wastes, were treated by incineration or landfill in the past. NMFs from WEEE contain heavy metals, brominated flame retardant (BFRs) and other toxic and hazardous substances. Combustion as well as landfill may cause serious environmental problems. Therefore, research on resource reutilization and safe disposal of the NMFs from WEEE has a great significance from the viewpoint of environmental protection. Among the enormous variety of NMFs from WEEE, some of them are quite easy to recycle while others are difficult, such as plastics, glass and NMFs from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). In this paper, we mainly focus on the intractable NMFs from WEEE. Methods and technologies of recycling the two types of NMFs from WEEE, plastics, glass are reviewed in this paper. For WEEE plastics, the pyrolysis technology has the lowest energy consumption and the pyrolysis oil could be obtained, but the containing of BFRs makes the pyrolysis recycling process problematic. Supercritical fluids (SCF) and gasification technology have a potentially smaller environmental impact than pyrolysis process, but the energy consumption is higher. With regard to WEEE glass, lead removing is requisite before the reutilization of the cathode ray tube (CRT) funnel glass, and the recycling of liquid crystal display (LCD) glass is economically viable for the containing of precious metals (indium and tin). However, the environmental assessment of the recycling process is essential and important before the industrialized production stage. For example, noise and dust should be evaluated during the glass cutting process. This study could contribute significantly to understanding the recycling methods of NMFs from WEEE and serve as guidance for the future technology research and development.     

A novel object detection method to facilitate the recycling of waste small electrical and electronic equipment

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Whether Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) can be effectively sorted and recycled will affect the sustainable development of human...     

我国电子废弃物的回收处理现状和管理对策

电子废弃物因其高速增长性、潜在污染性和资源性受到各国的广泛关注.我国由于对电子废弃物缺乏健全的回收体系和有效的监管,导致严重的环境污染和资源浪费.针对这一问题,论述了我国电子废弃物的来源、流向、处理处置和管理现状,借鉴国外生产者责任延伸制(EPR)的实践,从政府、生产者和消费者的责任分担角度.提出了适合我国国情的EPR体系.     

Pyrolysis and dehalogenation of plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): A review

Plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) have been an important environmental problem because these plastics commonly contain toxic halogenated flame retardants which may cause serious environmental pollution, especially the formation of carcinogenic substances polybrominated dibenzo dioxins/furans (PBDD/Fs), during treat process of these plastics. Pyrolysis has been proposed as a viable processing route for recycling the organic compounds in WEEE plastics into fuels and chemical feedstock. However, dehalogenation procedures are also necessary during treat process, because the oils collected in single pyrolysis process may contain numerous halogenated organic compounds, which would detrimentally impact the reuse of these pyrolysis oils. Currently, dehalogenation has become a significant topic in recycling of WEEE plastics by pyrolysis. In order to fulfill the better resource utilization of the WEEE plastics, the compositions, characteristics and dehalogenation methods during the pyrolysis recycling process of WEEE plastics were reviewed in this paper. Dehalogenation and the decomposition or pyrolysis of WEEE plastics can be carried out simultaneously or successively. It could be ‘dehalogenating prior to pyrolysing plastics’, ‘performing dehalogenation and pyrolysis at the same time’ or ‘pyrolysing plastics first then upgrading pyrolysis oils’. The first strategy essentially is the two-stage pyrolysis with the release of halogen hydrides at low pyrolysis temperature region which is separate from the decomposition of polymer matrixes, thus obtaining halogenated free oil products. The second strategy is the most common method. Zeolite or other type of catalyst can be used in the pyrolysis process for removing organohalogens. The third strategy separate pyrolysis and dehalogenation of WEEE plastics, which can, to some degree, avoid the problem of oil value decline due to the use of catalyst, but obviously, this strategy may increase the cost of whole recycling process.     

小型废弃电器电子产品精细拆解与资源化利用初步探讨

随着工业化进程和社会生活的丰富,各种小型电器电子产品不断问世,相关废弃产品的拆解和资源化利用已经成为资源综合利用的重要课题.基于其分类与回收利用现状,就国内精细拆解与资源化利用问题进行了探讨,并以废弃手机为例,就处理原则、工艺流程设置和高值利用方法提出了一些建议.     

Recovering metallic fractions from waste electrical and electronic equipment by a novel vibration system

The need to recover and recycle valuable resources from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is of growing importance as increasing amounts are generated due to shorter product life cycles, market expansions, new product developments and, higher consumption and production rates. The European Commission (EC) directive, 2002/96/EC, on WEEE became law in UK in January 2007 setting targets to recover up to 80% of all WEEE generated.Printed Wire Board (PWB) and/or Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is an important component of WEEE with an ever increasing tonnage being generated. However, the lack of an accurate estimate for PCB production, future supply and uncertain demands of its recycled materials in international markets has provided the motivation to explore different approaches to recycle PCBs.The work contained in this paper focuses on a novel, dry separation methodology in which vertical vibration is used to separate the metallic and non-metallic fractions of PCBs. When PCBs were comminuted to less than 1 mm in size, metallic grades as high as 95% (measured by heavy liquid analysis) could be achieved in the recovered products.     

Composition of plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by direct sampling

This paper describes a direct analysis study carried out in a recycling unit for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Portugal to characterize the plastic constituents of WEEE. Approximately 3400 items, including cooling appliances, small WEEE, printers, copying equipment, central processing units, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors and CRT televisions were characterized, with the analysis finding around 6000 kg of plastics with several polymer types. The most common polymers are polystyrene, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, polycarbonate blends, high-impact polystyrene and polypropylene. Additives to darken color are common contaminants in these plastics when used in CRT televisions and small WEEE. These additives can make plastic identification difficult, along with missing polymer identification and flame retardant identification marks. These drawbacks contribute to the inefficiency of manual dismantling of WEEE, which is the typical recycling process in Portugal. The information found here can be used to set a baseline for the plastics recycling industry and provide information for ecodesign in electrical and electronic equipment production.     

我国废旧电子电器产品拆解技术、设备应用现状及改进建议

从我国废旧电子电器回收行业基本情况、专业技术人才情况、相关企业拆解技术设备情况等方面,阐述了我国废旧电子电器产品拆解技术、设备应用现状,并提出相关改进提升建议。