title: Forecasting waste compositions: A case study on plastic waste of electronic display housings.
abstract: Because of the rapid succession of technological developments, the architecture and material composition of many products used in daily life have drastically changed over the last decades. As a result, well-adjusted recycling technologies need to be developed and installed to cope with these evolutions. This is essential to guarantee continued access to materials and to reduce the ecological impact of our material consumption. However, limited information is currently available on the material composition of arising waste streams and even less on how these waste streams will evolve. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology to forecast trends in the material composition of waste streams. To demonstrate the applicability and value of the proposed methodology, it is applied to forecast the evolution of plastic housing waste from flat panel display (FPD) TVs, FPD monitors, cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs and CRT monitors. The results of the presented forecasts indicate that a wide variety of plastic types and additives, such as flame retardants, are found in housings of similar products. The presented case study demonstrates that the proposed methodology allows the identification of trends in the evolution of the material composition of waste streams. In addition, it is demonstrated that the recycling sector will need to adapt its processes to deal with the increasing complexity of plastics of end-of-life electronic displays while respecting relevant directives.
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300A, Box 2422, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Jef.peeters@kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jef R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300A, Box 2422, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; Center for Environmental Studies, University of Cuenca, Campus Quinta Balzay, Av. Victor Manuel Albornoz, Cuenca, Ecuador.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanegas
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300A, Box 2422, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Technology Campus Diepenbeek, Agoralaan Gebouw B, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kellens
authors.affiliation: United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Jaco
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huisman
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300A, Box 2422, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dewulf
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300A, Box 2422, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Joost R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Duflou
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D055984:Cathode Ray Tube; D059029:Electronic Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D005060:Europe; D005062:European Union; D005544:Forecasting; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis*; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D013690:Television; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics
keywords: Electronic displays; Forecasting; Plastic recycling; Waste electrical electronic equipment (WEEE)