INNOVATION | WEEE AND ELV


hazardous waste,” says Slijkhuis. EERA is calling for a so-called EU48 classification


Above: Laboratory analysis at MGG Polymers


such as brominated flame retardants. “We do not have a permit to handle hazardous waste, because these materials are not considered to be hazardous in Austria,” Slijkhuis says. Even if waste is not listed as hazardous, there can still be significant problems in obtaining permissions to obtain material. Slijkhuis says that in one case, MGG has been waiting four years to obtain a permit under the EU’s Waste Shipment Regulation to transport plastics from a part of Germany into Austria. “There is more than enough material for us out


Right: There is a lot of plastics from WEEE, but recyclers can run into problems in obtaining it


there, but legal procedures to get it into our plant can be incredible,” he says. “It involves a lot of time, and a lot of money.” The EU is a signatory to the Basel Convention, which now includes the so-called Norwegian Proposals aimed at reducing marine litter; they are scheduled to become EU law by 1 January 2021. These will classify waste for transport in one of three categories: separated and clean waste (green listed waste), for which there is no problem in transporting; non-hazardous, notifiable mixed plastics waste, which requires a significant amount of accompanying documentation (amber listed waste); and hazardous waste (red listed waste), for which notification is much more difficult and transport is more costly; material that cannot be recycled has to be incinerated at higher costs. EERA, the Association of European Electronics


Recyclers, of which MGG Polymers is a member, is currently arguing that, within the EU, WEEE technical plastic should be classified as mixed, and not hazardous waste, Slijkhuis says. The association fears that the current draft of the legal text could lead to the obligation to declare WEEE plastics as hazardous waste. “Such a classification would mean that many recycling companies would not be allowed to accept WEEE plastics at all from next year because they do not have permits to accept


36 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2020 www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


of WEEE plastic. “This would mean that such fractions would be classified as non-hazardous but notifiable waste,” says Slijkhuis. Related to this is the question of concentration limit values of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in waste. Last year, the EU launched a study to see if the threshold, which currently stands at 1,000 mg/kg, could be reduced to 500. EERA says it has already had to work very hard to stop the limit being reduced to 10 mg/kg. EERA said in a statement issued in June that the renewed effort to reduce POP content thresholds “doesn’t do the recycling a lot of good, especially at a time that virgin plastic material can be purchased at prices below the cost price of post-consumer recycled plastics from WEEE.” EERA says: “Recycling of WEEE plastics makes a


lot of sense from both environmental, natural resources and climate reasons. This industry needs more capacity and any consideration to again start a new debate about thresholds for PBDEs [flame retardant] will have as consequence that further delays will occur in the development of the so desperately needed recycling capacities in the EU for WEEE plastics.” It concludes: “EERA fails to see any objective


arguments how new threshold values for PBDEs can be justified, but at the same time EERA asks that a swift decision is reached, certainly before the next joint conference of the Parties of the Stock- holm, Basel and Rotterdam Conventions scheduled to take place from 19-30 July 2021, where this topic will be on the agenda again.” One company that has already developed specialist knowledge for the removal of flame- retardant plastics from WEEE streams is Tomra Sorting in Germany. It says its Autosort and X-Tract


IMAGE: MGG


IMAGE: MGG


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