Environmental impacts and use of brominated flame retardants
in electrical and electronic equipment |
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Authors: | Sunil Herat |
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Institution: | (1) Griffith School of Engineering, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia |
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Abstract: | Management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste is becoming a major issue as around 20–50 million
tons of such waste is generated worldwide and increasing at a higher rate than other solid waste streams. Electrical and electronic
equipment (EEE) contains over 1,000 materials of which brominated flame retardants (BFRs) such as polybrominated biphenyls
(PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been the target of the regulators forcing manufacturers to adopt halogen-free
flame retardants. As far as these alternatives are concerned, key consideration should be its performance during the whole
life cycle through design, use and end-of-life management. The global halogen-free flame retardant movement has reached a
point of no return. The most important issue as far as the environment is concerned, for which the transformation to halogen-free
retardants was initially targeted, is to make sure that life span of the EEE using the alternatives to BFRs is not shortened
thereby resulting in unforeseen increases in e-waste to deal with. The aim of this article is to investigate the environmental
issues and current developments related to the use of BFRs in EEE manufacture. It describes the sources, toxicity and human
exposure of BFRs, EOL management such as recycling and thermal treatments, exposure of BFRs from e-waste processing facilities
and the environment around them and examines the developments and feasibility of the alternatives to BFR in EEE manufacture. |
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Keywords: | Brominated flame retardants Electronic waste E-waste Halogen-free flame retardants Recycling PBDEs WEEE |
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