Recycling Plastics from WEEE: A Review of the Environmental and Human Health Challenges Associated with Brominated Flame Retardants

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) presents the dual characteristic of containing both hazardous substances and valuable recoverable materials. Mainly found in WEEE plastics, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a component of particular interest. Several actions have been taken worldwide to regulate their use and disposal, however, in countries where no regulation is in place, the recovery of highly valuable materials has promoted the development of informal treatment facilities, with serious consequences for the environment and the health of the workers and communities involved. Hence, in this review we examine a wide spectrum of aspects related to WEEE plastic management. A search of legislation and the literature was made to determine the current legal framework by region/country. Additionally, we focused on identifying the most relevant methods of existing industrial processes for determining BFRs and their challenges. BFR occurrence and substitution by novel BFRs (NBFRs) was reviewed. An emphasis was given to review the health and environmental impacts associated with BFR/NBFR presence in waste, consumer products, and WEEE recycling facilities. Knowledge and research gaps of this topic were highlighted. Finally, the discussion on current trends and proposals to attend to this relevant issue were outlined.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Reutilization in China

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also called electronic waste or e-waste, the core of “urban mining”, is attracting more and more attention to its pollution control and circular recycling. Hence, we defined WEEE, preliminarily discussed its history in China and pointed out that China has made great achievements in WEEE circular reutilization and pollution control. Meanwhile, we analyzed the four levels of circular WEEE recycling: repair, reuse and remanufacture, waste-to-materials, waste-to-products and waste-to-energy, and also put forward questions during this process. Moving forward, WEEE management will turn to intelligent management targeted on hazardous waste and other pollution, not merely the guidelines. Meanwhile, WEEE technology will transfer to value-added and automated reutilization, not just simple dismantling.

Studies on the Content of Selected Technology Critical Elements (Germanium, Tellurium and Thallium) in Electronic Waste

The article draws attention to the problem of the presence of metals: germanium (Ge), tellurium (Te), thallium (Tl), and others (Cd, Ba, Co, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn) in selected waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). As a result of the growing demand for new technologies, the global consumption of TECs has also been increasing. Thus, the amount of metals in circulation, of which the impacts on the environment have not yet been fully understood, is constantly increasing. Due to the low content of these metals in WEEE, they are usually ignored during e-waste analyses. The main aim of this study was to determine the distribution of Ge, Te, and Tl (and other elements) in ground sieve fractions (1.0, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.1 mm) of selected electronic components (solar lamps, solar cell, LED TV screens, LCD screens, photoresistors, photodiodes, phototransistors) and to determine the possible tendency of the concentrations of these metals in fractions. This problem is particularly important because WEEE recycling processes (crushing, grinding, and even collection and transport operations) can lead to dispersion and migration of TCE pollutants into the environment. The quantitative composition of e-waste was identified and confirmed by ICP-MS, ICP-OES and SEM-EDS, and XRD analyses. It was found that Ge, Te, and Tl are concentrated in the finest fractions of ground e-waste, together with Cd and Cr, which may favor the migration of these pollutants in the form of dust during storage and processing of e-waste.

Design for Circularity Guidelines for the EEE Sector

The increased diversity and complexity of plastics used in modern devices, such as electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), can have negative impacts on their recyclability. Today, the main economic driver for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling stems from metal recovery. WEEE plastics recycling, on the other hand, still represents a major challenge. Strategies like design ‘for’, but also the much younger concept of design ‘from’ recycling play a key role in closing the material loops within a circular economy. While these strategies are usually analysed separately, this brief report harmonises them in comprehensive Design for Circularity guidelines, established in a multi-stakeholder collaboration with industry leaders from the entire WEEE value chain. The guidelines were developed at the product and part levels. They are divided in five categories: (1) avoidance of hazardous substances; (2) enabling easy access and removal of hazardous or polluting parts; (3) use of recyclable materials; (4) use of material combinations and connections allowing easy liberation; (5) use of recycled materials. These guidelines are the first harmonised set to be released for the EEE industry. They can readily serve decision-makers from different levels, including product designers and manufacturers as well as policymakers.

A Bilevel Programming Location Approach to Regional Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Collection Centers: A Study in China

As one of the largest markets of electronic and electric equipment, China has not completely established the formal recycling system of WEEE compared with the developed countries. As a result, China is facing the huge challenge of resource waste and water/soil environmental pollution. In this paper, according to the current regulations on WEEE recycling and disposal issued by Chinese government, the business model of the Chinese WEEE recycling system was designed, and a bilevel programming-based model was proposed to help the disposal factories to establish the regional efficient and economical WEEE recycling network. This model addressed the optimization of bilateral benefits of disposal factories and the third-party recycling agencies/stations. An experiment based on a regional WEEE recycling business data was solved by the NSGA algorithm to validate the proposed model. With the result, the proposed model was compared with the related studies on Chinese WEEE recycling network planning. With the comparison and the analysis on the experiment result, it was found that the proposed model had considerably stable convergence and optimization performance, which proved that this model can be regarded as a useful tool to the planning of the Chinese regional WEEE recycling network. In the last part, the future improvement of the proposed model was also discussed.

The Recycling of Secondary Waste in Polish Recycling Companies

This article analyses the recycling of secondary waste in Polish recycling companies. An innovative method of processing PCBs is presented and trends that should be followed by plants processing non-ferrous metal waste are indicated. In conclusion, it is emphasised that the Polish WEEE recycling market is still at the early development and growth stage and the most important goals that enterprises should set themselves include cost optimisation, improvement of waste management logistics and increases in the level of recycling.

Consumer’s Circular Behaviors in Relation to the Purchase, Extension of Life, and End of Life Management of Electrical and Electronic Products: A Review

Nowadays, management of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and the related waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is a growing concern around the world and clearly an open issue to tackle in order to move towards a more circular economy. The goal of this review paper is to analyze and summarize research conducted exploring behaviors connected with purchases, extension of useful life, and management of end of life of electrical and electronic equipment. The results highlight several research exploring the determinants of WEEE recycling behavior, also in relation with different practices (e.g., online recycling); on the other hand other typologies of behaviors are less analyzed in the literature (e.g., purchase of used EEE products, donation of EEE products, participation in WEEE takeback activities established by firm operating in this sector, etc.). Moreover, the results suggest that the theoretical model adopted in many studies reveals its usefulness to predict the determinist of such circular consumer’s behavior in relation to the purchase, extension of life, and end of life management of electrical and electronic products; however, in many cases, additional variables are needed to fully explain the behavior.