WEEE Directive puts pressure on polymers

A WEEE problem

07 May 2010 00:01  [Source: ICB]

The WEEE Directive, which makes producers of electrical equipment responsible for recycling their own products, has had a knock-on effect on polymer producers

Rex Features

MANUFACTURERS OF all sorts of products are now responsible for their ultimate collection and recycling.

Almost 20 years ago, the German "Green Dot" system forced producers of plastic packaging to collect and dispose of their products; the more recent End of Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive makes similar demands on the automotive industry. The newest industry-wide European program is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which was passed in 2003.

WEEE states that manufacturers of electrical equipment - everything from electric toothbrushes and televisions, to fridges and washing machines - must pick up the bill for their collection and recycling. This has had an effect on the upstream market, especially on polymer producers, whose products are used mainly for casings.

GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
"The main impact has been the shift toward non-halogenated flame retardants," says Antonio Nerone, development program manager at DuPont Performance Polymers in Switzerland. "Before, customers wanted to know if we had halogen-free alternatives; now, they insist on it."

Plastics that contain halogenated flame retardants are known to produce dioxins if they are burned in conventional incinerators. WEEE legislation mandates that plastics containing halogenated flame retardants be collected and incinerated separately. Because manufacturers are now ultimately responsible for the collection and recycling of the final product, they are looking to remove halogenated plastics from the waste stream to make the collection process simpler and less expensive.

Manufacturers are also keen to portray a green image, and getting rid of "bad" chemicals is a way to do this - just as legislation such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) has forced the removal of heavy metals such as chromium, mercury and lead.

According to Nerone, the WEEE legislation has had an effect on all plastics - from commodities to engineering resins. At the lower end, resins such as polystyrene (PS) will be formulated to include alternative (non-halogenated) flame retardants. At the higher end - for so-called high-temperature plastics like polyphenylene sulphide, polyetherimide and liquid crystal polymer - the effect has been very positive.

"These resins are inherently flame retardant, so need no additional compounds," says Nerone. "For us, the main driver is to look for reliable, cost-effective, halogen-free flame retardant systems."

US chemical giant DuPont has an ongoing program to incorporate alternative flame retardants into its products. Each polymer needs a different retardant to have the desired effect. "Some materials, like polyamide, are easier to modify," says Nerone. "Others, like polyester, are more difficult."

DuPont has already developed halogen-free grades of its Zytel HTN (a special type of nylon called polyphthalamide) for electrical connectors. These nonhalogenated grades are sold mainly in Asia, where most electrical equipment is produced. "It's not always easy to find alternative flame retardants, but we need to extend this type of technology to all our other products," says Nerone.

The pressure to do this will increase, he adds, as regions outside Europe begin to enact legislation that is similar to WEEE. China is already planning its own equivalents of WEEE and RoHS, which observers say may be even more restrictive. A few years ago, says Nerone, US companies were not worried about halogenated flame retardants. Now a number of US states - California in particular - have restricted them.

"What began as purely European legislation is being expanded," says Nerone.

German plastics giant BASF has also responded to the need to remove halogens from formulations.

"Some customers are requesting halogen-free flame retardants as a result of the WEEE legislation," says Klaus Wittstock, plastic affairs and communication specialist for electrical and electronic (E&E) topics for BASF. "However, there are combinations of flame retardants and plastics where substitution is not currently possible - or even counterproductive in terms of environmental impact."

And the company stresses that other factors are more important than material choice.

"The type of plastics plays only a minor role in end-of-life management of E&E goods," says Wittstock." Low weight, low consumption and exact compliance with electrical and safety requirements are more important for the total environmental impact of an E&E product than achieving a maximum recycling rate at end-of-life."

ONE MAN'S TRASH
If WEEE has been a burden for manufacturers, it has been a blessing for recyclers. The move towards "producer pays" has led to the creation of an enormous recycling industry. Manufacturers do not collect and recycle end-of-life products themselves; instead, they pay recyclers to do it for them.

One beneficiary of this is Keith Freegard, director of Axion Recycling in the UK. Axion buys plastics from the "WEEE waste stream" - which has been collected by large recycling companies - and reprocesses it into usable recycled polymer. The company has recently begun to offer this material in sheet form. But the recycled material has also found its way back into electrical products. "Indesit has used our material to make an access panel for its washing machines," says Freegard.

"What began as purely European legislation is being expanded" Antonio Nerone, development program manager, DuPont

The material was taken from recovered refrigerator waste plastics, then shredded and converted into pellets. The 100% recycled panels are used on Indesit's premium Hotpoint Aquarius and Ultima washing machines. The company estimates that the production run is around 500,000 parts.

Freegard's favored raw material comes from two sources: the casings of old-style TV sets; and waste plastic from refrigerators.

"My challenge is to convert as much as possible into saleable polymer," he says.

Freegard says he has begun working with three leading polymer producers that are keen to get their hands on his reprocessed material. One producer simply resells Axion's recyclate as its own; the second makes blends using 15-20% recycled material; the third is making a technical grade, combining high-impact polystyrene (PS) with other plastics to give a flame retardant plastic that uses no halogens.

"We've got TV plastics back into TVs, and fridge plastics into washing machines," says Freegard.

RECYCLING RULES
Ever since Germany introduced its Duales System to collect waste packaging, plastic products have been subject to some kind of restriction. Many directives do not specifically target plastics, but they target applications that are large consumers of plastics.

AUTOMOTIVE
The End of Life Vehicle Directive, which came into force in 2000, gives automotive manufacturers the responsibility for disposing of scrap cars. There are targets for the amount of material that must be recovered: 85% of a car's weight should be reused or recycled by 2015. Metal accounts for around 75% of a car's weight, and plastic about 15%. Many car manufacturers, such as Ford, are also now using recycled plastics for some components.

PACKAGING
The revised Packaging Directive (2004/12/EC) sets recovery and recycling targets for all types of packaging, including plastics. It sets an overall 60% minimum recovery and 55-80% recycling rate. For plastics, the recycling target is 22.5%.

ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
WEEE aims to minimize the impact of waste electrical goods on the environment by making the producer responsible for financing the collection, treatment and recovery of waste electrical equipment. An allied piece of legislation is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. It aims to reduce the use of four heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium) and two specific brominated flame retardants in electrical equipment.

Read Doris de Guzman's Green Chemicals blog

Author: Lou Reade

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