GREENING ELECTRONICS Lessons from a Danish study on WEEE

1. GREENING ELECTRONICSLessons from a Danish study on WEEE

2. WEEE -REGULATION Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) • fastest growing waste fraction in EU (UNEP 2009) • classified as hazardous waste • EU Directive 2002/96/EC (WEEE Directive) • collection, recycling and recovery targets • EU Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS Directive) • restriction of six HS in EEE: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)

3. Actors within the Danish WEEE management system • Extended producer responsibility • DPA System competent authority (WEEE regulation, registration and reporting) • Collective schemes • Business ≠Consumer products • Collection/pre-processing/disposal

4. WEEE STATISTICS • Marketed EEE • Collected WEEE (@municipal collection sites) • Treated WEEE • UNBALANCE due to: • no reporting of business products (e.g. if delivered directly to pre-processing facility) • use and stockpiling (Quantity???) • collected with MSW (Quantity???)

5. MATERIAL FLOW ANALYSIS (MFA) Danish pre-processing facility • Averhoff, Aarhus (Elretur collective scheme) • 16000 tons/y treated for WEEE cat. 2- Small household appliances 4 - Consumer equipment • Manual sorting • Shredding • Size sorting • Magnetic separation

6. MFA averhoff (continued) Fraction from over-belt magnet (electromotor and transformer waste ). Output from the multi-cyclone filter.

7. MFA averhoff (continued) ≈ 1500 tons/year Total weight of WEEE where energy is recovered in a power plant ≈ 41.5 tons/year Total weight of remaining WEEE which is disposed to landfill

8. LIMITATIONS OF danish WEEE data • poor and not sufficient for SFA • non-transparent flow of different materials • in the collection and pre-processing stages • generic WEEE nomenclature • generic knowledge of HS content in WEEE • no chem. analysis • manual sorting according to equipment list from WEEE-directive. • HS content in new products?

9. Substance composition of WEEE *Regulated by RoHS

10. HS of concern outside RoHSCRITERIA FOR IDENTIFICATION • Subst. dangerous in accordance with the Dangerous Substances Directive (Directive 67/548/EEC), that applies to pure chemicals marketed in the EU • Subst. Of very high concern (SVHC) in accordance with REACH • Subst. found as contaminants in humans and biota • Subst. with hazardous degradation products

11. HS of concern outside RoHS (1)

12. HS of concern outside RoHS (2)

13. Substance flow analysis (SFA) For 9 selected HS in a Danish pre-processing facility (6 RoHS subst. + 3 not included in RoHS) Objectives • Quantify amount HS in specific output fractions. • Estimate “contamination” of fractions to be recycled/disposed via thermal treatment • Individuate hot spots for potential impacts

14. SFA 1 – MATCHING OUTPUT FLOW DATA

15. SFA 2 – CONCENTRATION DATA • Substances included in RoHS + others • HS Conc. data in WEEE sorted fractions, from literature (Morf et al, 2004-2007, Swiss case study) • Data prior to RoHS!!!  expected overestimation of RoHS HS flows

16. SFA 3 - Results • Total amount (kg) HS per different output fractions. • Calculated total HS content of input WEEE Tetrabromo-bisphenol-A (TBBP-A) Chromium (Cr)

17. SFA-4 Discussion • Printed wiring board carrier for metal pollutants Manual sorting best solution (shredded PWB may end in other fractions) • Toxic organic compounds in plastic fraction • high quantities of plastic (ca. 4000 tons/year) and • high concentration of HS (TBBP-A ca.18000 mg/kg; HBCDD ca. 174 mg/kg). • Metals and HS in plastic fraction obstacle for thermal treatment or recycling.

18. Potential impacts from HS in WEEE • WEEE treatment  Primary emissions • WEEE reaction products  secondary emissions

19. WORKERS EXPOSURE • Classification of equipmentfailure in recognizing equipment containing HS  Accidental exposure via dermal contact/inhalation • Manual disassembly: long-term exposure to HS via inhalation of dust; HS from accidental breakage of equipment; dermal contact when cutting, breaking, handling the material. • Dust from shredding, exposure via inhalation/dermal contact EXTREME SCARCITY OF DATA (e.g. For HS emissions; monitoring of indoor HS concentration e.g. in dust/air; biomonitoring)

20. Impacts ON HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENT • Primary& secondary emission from thermal treatment of • Contaminated plastic from WEEE sorting • EEE products collected with MSW (e.g. mobile phones) • Not yet quantifiable due to lack of data • HS Emissions and Fate • SFA first stage • Use of emission factors from literature for thermal treatment, landifll • Life Cycle Impact assessment method applied to SFA results

21. Conclusions and Perspectives • WEEE hazardous waste, growing amounts, changing composition, new products • Gaps in reporting and monitoring of WEEE flows • Incomplete info on HS substance content, specially for new HS (not inclued in RoHS) • SFA for facilities is possible with literature data  difficult to upscale to national • Recommended improvements: • Flow monitoring at National scale (Stocks & flow analysis) • Chemical analysis of WEEE composition (focus on new subst.) • Monitoring of indoor conc., • Life Cycle impact assessment based on SFA data

22. THANK YOU Presentation based on the project and reportcitetbelow: Pizzol, M., Hansen, M.S. & Thomsen, M. 2011.Greening of Electronics – Identification of hazardouscompounds. Danish EPA report, in press