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WEEE AND ELV | INNOVATION


customisation, better WEEE management, and ICT tools to assist with other circular services. ICT tools are being developed thanks to synergies between the circular economy and Industry 4.0. QR codes on each product will provide information to facilitate reuse and recycling. In May, Fraunhofer Research Institution for


Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS said it was establishing a Centre for Disman- tling and Recycling for Electromobility – or ZDR- EMIL – in Hanau, Germany. Together with partners from industry and research, the institute develops sustainable processes for the complete recycling of components in electric vehicles. Since its founding in 2011, its research has focused on the recycling and reuse of functional materials from high-perfor- mance magnets and energy conversion systems, which are key components of e-mobility. “With the ZDR-EMIL, automated and flexible dismantling and recycling processes are devel- oped for all components of electric vehicles, “ says Jörg Zimmermann, project manager of ZDR-EMIL. “It is important in our approach that we recover all materials. This includes the valuable critical metals, but also construction materials such as plastic, aluminium and steel, which are contained in far higher quantities.” “We will build on our existing know-how in the


recovery of plastics and metals for example from other electronic waste,” says a representative. “The idea of our functional recycling approach is to separate and sort the different materials at a very early stage in recycling. Among other things, we use the so-called electrohydraulic fragmentation to separate plastics from metals and other fractions for example on circuit boards.” In July, EERA joined with the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) to highlight the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on members’ activities. Together, the organisations claim to represent the vast majority of technical plastics recyclers collecting, recycling, and marketing recycled polymers from WEEE and ELVs. “A sharp drop in demand combined with plummeting virgin plastics’ prices have further negatively impacted a sector where long term investments in high-tech processes are instrumen- tal to recycle complex plastics from automotive and electronics, representing on average 20% of the overall demand for plastics,” they say. “There is a genuine risk, if no urgent measures


are taken, to witness a reduction of Europe’s technical plastics recycling capacity at a time where scaling up is the most needed to meet the EU’s sustainable agenda.”


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com July/August 2020 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 39


The two organisations say technical plastics recy- clers not only fully subscribed to objectives set out in the EU’s Green Deal and the New Circular Economy Action Plan in Europe, “but play a key role by substituting virgin plastics used in long lifetime products, and saving a substantial amount of energy as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, a number of obstacles keep hindering the recycling of plastics from ELVs and WEEE and their use in durable products requiring observance of strict quality requirements. Among them, the need to better enforce proper collection and sorting requirements, insufficient consistency of the European regulatory framework, particularly in relation to the lack of interface between waste and chemicals to assess substances of concern; furthermore, the overly complex rules framing shipment of plastic waste for recycling in Europe or the necessity to improve design for recycling.” Aside from these bottlenecks, say the associa-


tions, the largest challenge to boosting invest- ments in technical plastics recycling is the develop- ment of stable outlets for quality recycled polymers in the automotive and E&E sectors. Noting that the 6.6m ELVs treated in 2017 generated over 8m tonnes of waste (source: Eurostat), of which more than 1m tonnes were plastics, they estimate that plastic recycling from those ELVs could potentially avoid 1m tonnes of CO2


equivalent, “which could


offset the carbon footprint of producing 100,000 new cars in EU”. They say the technical plastics recycling industry unanimously calls for the inclusion, whenever relevant, of recycled content targets in sectorial legislation, such as the ELV or WEEE Directives. “The revision of the ELV Directive offers, in the field of technical plastics, the first opportunity to set gradual and fully achievable recycled content


Below: Fraunhofer IWKS has established ZDR-EMIL – Centre for Dismantling and Recycling for Electromo- bility – in Hanau, Germany


IMAGE: FRAUNHOFER IWKS


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