Plastics from E&E waste: Innovative separation and upgrading technology

The use of plastics in electronic and electrical equipment is increasing rapidly. Besides plastics, steel and glass these products also contain toxic compounds e.g. CFC's, flame retardants and heavy metals like mercury, copper, cadmium and lead. These components will leak into the environment when E&E products discarded are not treated in the right way. For this reason the Dutch government set up rules regarding the collection of different types of E&E products. Collected products are being dismantled and shreddered in order to reclaim hazardous materials like CFC's but also useful materials like ferro and non-ferro metals. The plastic fraction is seen as waste and is incinerated or landfilled. The objective of the project described here is to develop an environmentally sound recycling process for plastics from consumer electronics, which cleans the plastics not only from unwanted additives but also upgrades their material performance.