waste—today's termfor discarded computers,monitors, hard drives,copiers, printers, faxmachines, telephonesof all types, and eventelevisions—is collectedin large volumes in thiscountry, but not alwaysfor its intrinsic value asrecyclable raw materials.Printed-circuit boardscontain more than $3/lb in recoverable metals,but that's offset by thedisposal cost of low-valueand hazardous materials.

Two factors currently drive e-waste collection and recycling. Corpo-rations want to ensure data security bydestroying their old computers. Gov-ernments around the world support,or require, e-waste collection hecauseof the hazardous metals and chemicalsin many components. Since 1993, theU.S. EPA has defined CRT tubes andLCD screens as hazardous becausethey contain leaded glass and mer-cury, respectively. PC's contain circuitboards with heavy-metal componentsand rechargeable lithium batteries.

But the largest volume componentof electronic scrap is the "e-plastics,"some of which contains brominatedflame retardants. Persona! computerscontain the most—as much as 2.62 lbof FR agents in the cabinet and another

Brominated flame retardants restrict its use.Most now goes to China, but new recyclingprocesses promise to 'clean up' e-waste.

Plastics fTwn old computer contain brominated FRs, making them unusable in Europe undernew RoHS restrictions. (Photo: WM Recycle America)

1.13 lb in the circuit boards-—accordingto a report from the Univ. of BritishColumbia, Vancouver, published in theFebruary issue of Resource Recyclingmagazine.

According to the EPA, 57 millioncomputers were sold in the U.S. lastyear. The average life of a PC nowadaysis two or three years. So that's a lot oftroublesome waste.

By Jan H. Schut, Senior Editor

48 August 2007 www.ptonllne.com

Material collected under European WEEE directives combines electronic products with many other electrical goods. (Photo: Axion)

The European Union's new RoHSregulations on "restriction of the useof certain hazardous substances inelectrical and electronic equipment,"which took effect in 2006. limit theamoimt of brominated FR in plasticsto no more than O.l'Jf of polybromi-nated biphenyls (PBB) and polybro-minated diphenyl ethers (PBDE),Although newer electronics are beingmade with nonhalogen FRs, there'sstill a lot of older equipment out there.That makes recycled e-plastics largelyunusable by any company selling itsproducts in Europe. And that effec-tively makes closed-loop recycling ofe-plastics impractical.

What's a recycler to do?"Recyclers are dependent on

what's available in the market. If RoHSprohibits reuse of these materials, thenwhat do we do with those products?"asks Darren Arola, global sales direc-tor at MBA Polymers, a U,S.-basedrecycler of e-plastics and plastics from

other durable goods. MBA has operatedjoint-venture recycling plants in Chinasince 2005 and in Austria since 2006.They produce recycled ABS, HIPS, andPP that are equivalent in piuity andconsistency to virgin materials, Arolaclaims. But MBA mostly avoids FR ma-terials if it can help it because end-usemarkets are so hard to find.

MBA qualifies its e-waste sup-pliers and tests incoming plastics forcomposition and FR level. MBA prefersto source materials from low-voltageappliances and electronics that don'thave a CRT and thus don't requireflame retardants—like phones, print-ers, and refrigerators.

Axion Polymers, a recycler of e-plastics in the U.K., also tests incom-ing materials and removes polymerswith brominated FRs. "E-waste con-taining circuit boards, as well as TVand computer-monitor casings, photo-copiers, and other high-voltage itemsare the particularly controversialcomponents of the e-waste mix, where

there is a high proportion of bromine,"says Axion director Roger Morton, Thebrominated FR material has only low-value markets, he adds.

Just how low that value is to recy-clers is demonstrated by one U,S. flrmthat sells unseparated e-waste mixturefor 2G/lb to a local auto shredder, whichcommingles it with auto-shredder fluff.This is used as a daily cover at a localsanitary landfill, avoiding the use of"good dirt."

Wliat really supports e-waste re-cycling is data destruction by largecorporations. When they replace elec-tronic equipment, they pay to guar-antee destruction of their old comput-ers to protect confidential data. Thatmakes available large numbers of mi-crochips and hard disks from whichprecious metals can be recovered. Inaddition, reclaimers are increasinglyfi,nding that refurbishing and resellingwhole used computers and monitors isa higher value reuse market than sal-vaging the raw materials they contain.

www.ptonline.com August 2007 49

ECYCUNG E-PLASTICS

The growing pileBut afler the destruction of hard

drives and memory chips, refurbishingof whole computers, recovery of valu-ahle metals, and removal of hazardousglass, what's left is a growingpile of plas-tic shells from monitors, printers, faxmachines, and TVs that can be reusedonly if it's separated by polymer typeand FR content.

Because e-plastic waste is a newmaterial for regulators, collectors, recy-clers, and end users, record keeping isstill fairly rudimentary. The Instituteof Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) inWashington, D.C, which started tabu-lating e-waste just this year, calculatesthat the U.S. generated 1.5 billion lb ofall kinds of e-waste in 2006, of which anestimated 10% was recycled. Accordingto the 2006 report of the InternationalAssociation of Electronics Recyclers inAlbany, N.Y., U.S. electronics recyclersprocessed 2.8 billion/lb of e-waste in2005, Of that, around 245million/lh of plastics wererecycled in some manner.

Two U.S. states andone Canadian provincerequire computer recy-chng—California since2005, Maine and Albertasince 2006. More statesand provinces are gearingup. The California Inte-grated Waste Manage-ment Board in Sacramentohas approved 53 computerdismantlers and over 400collection centers, whichprocessed nearly 127.6 mil-lion lb of e-waste last year.European WEEE (WasteElectrical and ElectronicEquipment) directivessince 2006 also require col-lection of electronics andelectrical appliances.

Gone to ChinaBecause of the FR is-

sue, e-plastics waste hasfound applications main-ly in China, Wliile thereis no hard data available,probably 99% of U.S. e-plastic is now baled andshipped to China to be re-

cycled there because separation is solabor-intensive. Back in the late 1990s,the U.S. government funded attemptsto develop a successful method of sort-ing e-plastics. Unicor, the federallysponsored prison work-training pro-gram, set up a pilot project in Lewis-burg, Pa., to figure out how e-plasticparts could be manually separated forreuse—and concluded that it couldn'tbe done cost-effectively. Unicor nowships baled plastics from its electron-ics dismantling facilities around thecountry to brokers and consolidatorsto be sent to China.

Fortune Metals and Plastics, alarge U.S. reclaimer with 25 facilitiesin the U.S.. Mexico, Hong Kong, andmainland China, set up a Chinese jointventure in Nanjing 10 years ago to sortand upgrade e-waste metals and plas-tics. It has added three more Chineseplants since then. The Nanjing plant isISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, and

Fortune provides workers there withfood, housing, and medical care.

Pare Corp. in N. Aurora, 111., is ane-plastic consolidaton It was set up sixyears ago to buy plastic shells of oldTVs and monitors after the glass andmetal are removed and ship them toChina. Pare sends e-plastics to its ownrecycling facility in QingDao, northernChina, where the material is sorted,metal fasteners are snipped out, andthe plastic pieces are hand washed."They can sort PC/ABS, ABS, or HIPSwith up to 80% purity hy identifyingthe manufacturer visually," says Parev.p. of sales, Bei Guan. A "burn test"with a lighter will distinguish ABSfrom PC/ABS. The resins are pelletizedand used on the local market to moldproducts like housings for low-end ap-pliances such as water coolers.

Imperfectly sorted e-plastics couldraise potential quality and health is-sues. A mixture of e-plastics contains

Automatic sorting at MBA's China plant produces con»stent grades of ABS, HIPS, and PPfrom low-FR e-piasbcs gathered from around the worid.

50 August 2007 www.ptonlino.com

Axion's automated e-plastic recydii^ process separates polymers of low-FR materials like AB5 from telephones.

The Fraunhofer Instttiite^ CreaSohr sohiHon process produces clean e-plasticscontaining as little as 0.055% brominated FR. This tank is a pilot system.

different FR agents used in ABS,HIPS, and PC/ABS of different vin-tages. The most common brominatedFR agent still used today is decabro-modiphenyl oxide (DBDPO), which isnot considered an environmental orhealth hazard in waste plastics. Butolder e-waste could contain octa- andpentabrominated biphenyls—FRs nowbanned as environmental hazards.

Taming the FR problemAxion Rocycling Ltd., a U.K. re-

cycling consultant, is working withWRAP (Waste Resources Action Pro-gram! a government-funded recyclingdevelopment group in Banbury, Oxon,U.K., to test ways to remove bromi-nated FRs from e-plastics. WRAP haslicensed the CreaSolve technology de-veloped by the Fraunhofer Institutefor Process Engineering and Pack-aging (Fraunhofer IW) in Germanyand also developed its own Centrevapmethod.

Both processes dissolve the FRpolymer in a solvent, then separatethe FR agents from the solution be-fore removing the solvent again toprecipitate out polymer with low FRlevels. Tests at Axion showed thatCreaSolve's technology reduced bro-minated FR concentration down to

www.ptonline.com August 2007 51

RECYCLING E-PLASTICS

0,055'7r. The Centrevap method filtersout SLibmicron particles such as anti-mony oxide but does not remove thesoluble FRs.

CreaSolv uses a non-VOC sol-vent developed by CreaCycle GmbH.Grevenbroich, Germany. This mixtureof eaters with high-molecular-weight

components is 99% recycled in theprocess. "Based on production of 8 to10 million lb/yr, the resulting poly-mer costs 50% less than virgin resin,"Fraunhofer says. CreaSolv technol-ogy has only been practiced on a pilotscale and is still two years away frombeing com.mercially available.

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Automated e-recyclingWhile many Chinese e-waste re-

claimers make use of plentiful andcheap manual labor, around a half-dozen recyclers and reclaimers aroundthe world have set up systems to sep-arate e-scrap plastic automatically.In the 1990s, Butler MacDonald Inc.(originally a metals reclaimer) devel-oped systems using hydrocyclones andelectrostatic, density, and color sepa-rators to recover 99.9'7'f pure polymerstreams from mixed rej^rind. For ex-ample, Butler MacDonald separatesPP from PET in closed-loop reprocess-ing of used printer and fax cartridgesfor a large manufacturer,

Butler MacDonald also reprocess-es a small amount of haled computermonitors, but "it's still a very smallpercentage of what we do," says v.p.Terrence Bradshaw. He notes that hro-kers and aggregators have to he will-ing to invest in equipment to removethe glass and keyhoards first. Then themetals, dirt, and rocks can be extract-ed and finally the polymers separatedautomatically.

MBA's Chinese and Austrianplants use a process that includesmetal-removal devices, grinders, andair separators to remove dust, wood,rubber, and glass. Cleaned plastic flakethen goes through a proprietary seriesof modules to separate PP, HIPS, andABS, Purified flake streams are testedfor quality and conveyed pneumatical-ly to twin-screw compounding extrud-ers that are custom-built for MBA inChina.

MaSeR Corp. in Barrie, Ont., wasset up in 2005 to reclaim metals frome-waste using automated mechanicalprocesses that include gi'inding andcentrifugal friction. Its three-stageprocess starts with coarse shreddinginto 6- to 8-in. pieces, after which thelarge chunks of plastic are removed.The remainder goes to a ring mill, thena granulator. Bonded metals and plas-tics are then delaminated in a propri-etary mechanical device that MaSeRcalls a "Fractionator." MaSeR sells itsmixed-plastics byproduct to makers ofproducts like highway sound barriers.Some high-plastic-content electronics"cost more to run through the systemthan it can produce in output value,"

52 August 2007 wKTw.ptonline.coin

according to the company's website.Plas-Sep Ltd., London, Ont., does

electrostatic separation using a largerotating drum (its own development)and does toll separation for severallarge waste reprocessors in the region.It reportedly can separate most ABSfrom FR-ABS, depending on the mixproportions. The process also separatespolymers of similar density (Plas-Sepis represented in the U.S. hy Bob Wolfeat Action International.)

Electrocycling GmhH in Goslar,Germany, performs elaborate mecban-ical separation of e-waste. primar-ily for metals recovery, but generatesabout 15 million lb/j'r of e-plastic. Ithand separates incoming waste andprocesses it in homogenous lots—i.e.,all phones or all TVs —to reduce cross-contamination. Phones are made ofnon-FR ABS, which is sold to recyclers.Mixtures of FR plastics are sold forwaste-to-energy incineration. "It's het-ter to incinerate than to dilute the FR

NEED TO KNOW MORE?

For more information on these companies andtheir products, visit www,ptonline,com/suppliers

Action International Inc.. Vernon, Conn.1860) 8724660 • www,acticninternationiilmc,coin

Axion Recycling Ltd.,Manchester, U.K.+44 (161) 426 7731 •www.axionrecycling,com

Butler MacDonald Inc.. Indianapolis(317] 872-5115 • www.bMtlerniaccJonald.com

CreaCycle GmbH, Grevenbroich, Germany+49 (218!) 23 92 21 • www,cfeacycle.de

Electrocycling GmbH, Goslar, Germany+49 {5321} 3367-0 •www,electfocycling,de

Fraunboter IW. Freising, Germany+49 (8161) 491-330 • www iwftaunhoferde

MaSeR Corp., Marblehead. Mass.(8//')242-03D0»www.masercorp,com

MBA Polymers Inc. Richmond, Calif.(510) 4/8-1910 •www.mbapotymers,cDni

Plas-Sep Ltd.. London, Ont,(613)730-?682»www,plassep,com

Plastic Herverwerking Brabant. Waalwijk.The Netherlands+31 (416) 347-373 • www.phb-tecycling.com

material and keep it in the loop." saysGeorg Froehiich, managing director.

Plastic Herverwerking Brabantin Waalwijk, The Netherlands, uses aseries of steps to mechanically sepa-rate plastics collected under EuropeanWEEE rules.

Axion Recycling in the U.K. set

up Axion Polymers in 2006 to performautomated separation and recyclingof e-plastic scrap generated hy WEEEregulations. It can process 28 millionlb/yr of e-plastics via size reduction,wet and dry cleaning, automatic poly-mer identification and separation, andrepelletizing of e-scrap plastics. tiiUl

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