Recovering Plastics from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Based on the Example of Telecommunications Devices

摘要

As a consequence of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive issued by the European Union in conjunction with the Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), current practices in the recycling of waste electronic devices have come under scrutiny. With implementation of the directives in German law by August 2004, recycling methods and utilization paths had to be adapted in order to meet the required utilization and recycling quotas. As the number of telecommunications devices produced and in use is growing steadily, it can be assumed that in future around 20.000 tpa of old telephones will be fed back to recycling processes. A systematic preliminary processing of the waste devices based on material content and material variety, with consideration of transport and logistics costs, is urgently required to enable low-cost recycling. With a defined material input, a recycling process can be deigned for simpler, more cost-efficient operation with higher product quality. It has been shown that the current methods aim essentially at the recovery of materials. For waste electrical devices containing a high percentage of plastics, it is not possible to comply with the recycling quota without further processing of the plastics.