Chemical or feedstock recycling of WEEE products
bookPart
This chapter reviews initiatives with regard to chemical or feedstock recycling of plastics waste from electrical and electronic products. eurostat estimates the amount of waste from electrical and electronic products that is collected is 2.2 million tonnes. Roughly 20% of this waste consists of plastics. These plastics are difficult to recycle since after separation from the main waste product, a contaminated flow of mixed plastics is usually obtained. In the 1990s, various firms took initiatives to set up dedicated plants capable of breaking the plastics waste down to a hydrocarbon feedstock via processes such as cracking, liquefaction and gasification. Examples include plants set up by BASF and VEBA in Germany, and plans developed by, among others, Texaco and BP in the Netherlands and the UK. These dedicated initiatives, however, proved not to be commercially viable. The feedstock recycling plants still operational today are in use as reducing agent in blast furnaces and the SVZ process in Germany. Although these plants were built for other purposes, plastics can be applied with minor pre-treatment, leading to the important advantage that no capital investment is needed for the recycling process. © 2012 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.
Topics
TNO Identifier
528617
ISBN
9780857096333
9780857090898
9780857090898
Publisher
Elsevier Inc.
Source title
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Handbook
Pages
264-283
Files
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