The question of contaminants in recycled plastic

Before reusing materials, recycling companies sort and shred plastic housings,

metal wires, and computer keyboards.

Recyclers continue to struggle with contaminants in electronic waste and in consumer plastics according to Naomi Lubik in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in Plastic’s Polluted Burden: ES&T’s Top Policy Analysis Article 2011.

In Europe researchers found that every class of plastics was contaminated. Overall, the team measured levels of cadmium close to or slightly above the levels set by the directive, but mercury well below the target levels. Lead in some places was very high, occurring at up to 7800 ppm…..

Recycling programs in Europe take in items including refrigerators, computers, cell phones, toys, and medical devices.

The wide variety of incoming plastics, as seen in the photo above, can be difficult to sort. In some of the more advanced recycling plants, mechanical shredding gets the plastics down to fingernail-size pieces, which must then be sorted by weight or optical methods to pinpoint the plastic type…..

Recycling contaminated plastics means that hazardous substances will never completely disappear from the market.

“We spread contaminants into a variety of products,” says Martin Schlummer of Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Freising, Germany. Schlummer works on methods to separate plastics and extract flame retardants. To get rid of contaminants, he says, “you should sort such plastics from e-waste and treat them separately.”  

According to ABS Australia’s Environment Issues and Trends 2010:

Australians are among the highest users of new technology in the world. Waste from obsolete electronic goods, or “e-waste”, is one of the fastest growing waste types.

In practical terms e-waste includes items such as televisions, DVD & video players, stereos, power tools, desktop computers and laptops, computer keyboards, scanners, printers, fax machines, mobile phones and PDAs, kitchen appliances, and ink & toner cartridges – from which plastic is often extracted for recycling.

Such e-waste can have components containing lead, antimony, mercury, phosphors, beryllium, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), phthalates, cadmium or arsenic.

Although many recycling facilities operating in Australia routinely separate e-waste from other sorts of waste**, one has to wonder if there is any ability to ensure that no contaminants have been absorbed into the plastic being extracted. Given that items containing plastic only appear to be manually sorted for visible gross contaminants, before being mechanically processed and separated into plastic/non-plastic material which had been reduced to tiny segments along the processing chain.

The entire question is complicated by the fact that Information about the disposal and recycling of waste materials and products is variable in scope and quality with some jurisdictions not collecting data and others having different waste categories according to the National Waste Report 2010.

** Veolia Environmental Services Australia states:

The recycling of the E-Waste equipment is performed at Sims E-Recycling, a joint venture set up between Veolia and the Sims Group. Electronic waste collected undergoes a manual dismantling process. The individual materials such as printed circuit boards, cabling, glass and plastics etc., are recovered and then processed so that they can be used as raw materials to produce new products.

Sims Recycling Solutions states that it:

dismantles a wide range of electrical and electronic products, ensuring all sensitive data is shredded to protect customer assets. Hazardous substances are recovered and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. Commodities such as metals, plastics and glass are then processed for recycling.
Recycling company 1800 E Waste states: Most electronic waste goes through a recycling system called a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which not only recycles 95-98%, by weight, of all ewaste passed through it, but ensures that any data left on hard drives and memories are thoroughly destroyed too. 
■Picking Shed – first all the items are sorted by hand and batteries and copper are extracted for quality control.
■Initial Size Reduction Process – items are shredded into pieces as small as 100mm to prepare the ewaste to be thoroughly sorted. This is also where the data destruction takes place.
■Secondary Size Reduction – the small debris is shaken to ensure that it is evenly spread out on the conveyor belt, before it gets broken down even more. Any dust extracted is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
 ■Overband Magnet – using magnets, steel and iron are removed from the debris.
■Metallic & Non-Metallic Content – aluminium, copper and brass are separated from the non-metallic content. The metallic can then be reused and resold as raw materials.
■Water Separation – water is used to separate plastic from the glass content. Once divided all raw materials can then be resold.

A message for Clarence Valley Council: "one person's junk is another person's treasure"

Like plenty of other Clarence Valley Council residents I've been waiting very keenly for council to undertake its annual kerbside cleanup. This annual event enables residents (and especially those who don't have access to a suitable vehicle) to dispose of items that either won't fit into the weekly garbage bin or are viewed as still having some redeemable features ... "one person's junk is another person's treasure".

So, I was more than a bit miffed when I found out, courtesy of a piece in The Daily Examiner, that 2010's pickup would not provide for the kerbside collection of e-waste. Prior to the 2009 cleanup residents were similarly told that e-waste should not be out for the February-March collection, but should instead be recycled during Council's second E-waste collection later in the year.

Sadly, the e-waste collection in late 2009 did not eventuate.

Consequently, small and not-so-small mountains of e-waste have been accumulating at many properties across Council's coverage area since at least early 2009.

As most residents (AND Council) know, the amount of material residents put out for collection and the amount of material council workers load on council trucks are two totally different amounts. Prior to the collection days scores of amateur and not-so-amateur recyclers and reusers "assist" Council and lessen the loads that have to be transported. In fact, many residents facilitate the work of the recyclers and reusers by sorting their material so that it can be readily identified as genuine junk/rubbish, useful junk/rubbish and possibly useful junk/rubbish.

Perhaps residents will ignore Council's advice and continue to place their e-waste out for collection. After all, seeing the e-waste go to good homes prior to the arrival of council workers and vehicles on the designated cleanup days is a darn lot better than having to resort to sending it to the tip in weekly instalments via the weekly red garbage collection.

Read Council's notice re the cleanup, including specific dates for local areas, here.









Regards,
Clarrie