title: Characterisation and materials flow management for waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics from German dismantling centres.
abstract: Waste electrical and electronic equipment is a complex waste stream and treatment options that work for one waste category or product may not be appropriate for others. A comprehensive case study has been performed for plastic-rich fractions that are treated in German dismantling centres. Plastics from TVs, monitors and printers and small household appliances have been characterised extensively. Based on the characterisation results, state-of-the-art treatment technologies have been combined to design an optimised recycling and upgrade process for each input fraction. High-impact polystyrene from TV casings that complies with the European directive on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) was produced by applying continuous density separation with yields of about 60%. Valuable acrylonitrile butadiene styrene/polycarbonate can be extracted from monitor and printer casings by near-infrared-based sorting. Polyolefins and/or a halogen-free fraction of mixed styrenics can be sorted out by density separation from monitors and printers and small household appliances. Emerging separation technologies are discussed to improve recycling results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Recycling Polymers, Fraunhofer Institute IVV, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arends
authors.affiliation: Department of Recycling Polymers, Fraunhofer Institute IVV, Freising, Germany martin.schlummer@ivv.fraunhofer.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schlummer
authors.affiliation: Department of Recycling Polymers, Fraunhofer Institute IVV, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mäurer
authors.affiliation: Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Markowski
authors.affiliation: Processing Department, Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wagenknecht
mesh_terms: D059029:Electronic Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D005858:Germany; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis*; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics
keywords: Waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics; characterisation; density; dismantling; near-infrared; recycling; separation