Michael M. Fisher

Energy recovery in the sustainable recycling of plastics from end-of-life electrical and electronic products

As the collection of end-of-life (EOL) electrical and electronic products from households and businesses increases around the world, the search for economically and environmentally responsible and sustainable recovery and recycling processes intensifies. Since the early 1990s, the global plastics industry has been at the forefront of research, development, and demonstration projects to ensure that sound integrated resource management options exist for plastics. Regional trade associations such as the American Plastics Council (APC), Plastics Europe (previously the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe or APME), and the Plastics Waste Management Institute of Japan (PWMI) have led much of this effort. Mechanical recycling, feedstock chemical recycling, fuel recovery, and energy recovery technologies have all been significantly advanced through this work. This paper provides an overview of the energy recovery option, which is an important, albeit partial component of this portfolio of resource recovery options. Available in all regions today, energy recovery processes is an important part of the environmentally and economically sound resource recovery infrastructure for plastics from EOL electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). A significant body of research is summarized that demonstrates that energy recovery not only contributes to reduced fossil fuel consumption by society, but provides an ecologically sound way to manage a significant portion of the plastics from todays EOL EEE.

Value added color sorting of recycled plastic flake from end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment

The properties of products made from recycled plastics are in part determined by the level and types of impurities found in the primary plastic. The removal of other plastics is essential if the properties are to approach those of virgin resin. Purification of plastic resins is achieved by exploiting differences in material properties of the different plastic types. Differences in density and surface properties have been shown to allow for the separation of a number of plastic materials. In many cases, streams of recycled plastic are composed of flakes of a wide variety of colors. The flakes can also range from clear to opaque. Separation of plastics into groups of similar colors can greatly increase their value because they can be colored to meet reasonable specifications much more easily. Sometimes, the different colors might correspond to different types of plastics, so their separation is desirable. For these reasons, the sorting of plastics based on color may prove to be a valuable separation technique for recycled plastic flakes. In this study undertaken jointly by the American Plastics Council and MBA Polymers, color sorting was applied to the separation of white, gray and black plastics from end-of-life electronic equipment. The composition dependence of sorting was investigated experimentally and compared with a theoretical model. Results indicate that increased levels of impurities decrease the throughput rate and result in increased impurity levels in both product and reject streams. The removal of black from a mixture of black and gray flakes was also demonstrated as a way to control product color.

Ten facts to know about plastics from consumer electronics

The intent of this paper is to provide the electronics recovery industry with accurate, well-researched information on plastics from recovered consumer electronics. It includes ten facts that everyone in the industry should know based on the most current research.

Large Scale Co-combustion Demonstration of Electrical and Electronic Shredder Residue at the Wuerzburg Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator (MHKW)

In a controlled test campaign, a broad consortium of international stakeholders has demonstrated the effects of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment shredder residue (ESR) on the performance of a large scale municipal solid waste energy recovery combustor MHKW in Wuerzburg, Germany. The ESR was highly concentrated with electrical and electronic plastics. Three test conditions were investigated: 1) base case without additional electrical and electronic shredder residue; 2) addition of 11 weight percent ESR containing E&E plastics; 3) addition of 26 weight percent ESR with E&E plastics. The fact that some electrical and electronic equipment is already in the mixed MSW feed to many waste-to-energy plants made the testing important for the MHKW operator as well as for the local regulatory authorities (EPA). The tests investigated the effect of ESR on plant operations, air emissions (acids, organics, and metals), and ash characteristics, and on the destruction efficiencies for several chlorinated and brominated substances present in the ESR. The large scale test used 103 tons of ESR derived from 650 tons of a typical mix of information technology equipment, consumer electronics, small household appliances, and other products. The ESR was supplied by Electrocycling in Germany. The tests were successfully completed from an operational standpoint without long time delays and did not show any mechanical blockage during the test in spite of the high heating value, 23 GJ/t, of the ESR. The grate was operated at close to 90 percent throughput