INNOVATION | WEEE RECYCLING
The project is investigating sorting of materials
Above: Alba established collections points and developed the Step Up app for post-consumer electronic waste in Singapore
helps us stabilise value, which, in turn, helps us better service our diverse base of customers.” Alba Group reports it won a global tender from
Right: In the Nontox project, Extruclean and CreaSolv
technologies are being used to eliminate hazardous substances from waste plastics
Singapore’s National Environment Agency for the construction and operation of a new collection system for electronic waste. A new law has estab- lished the principle of producer responsibility for waste collection and recycling for the first time in Singapore. The electronic waste programme is funded by an EPR scheme. Alba is setting up a collection system consisting of bins, temporary collection points on weekends, a return system from retailers and a chargeable collection service throughout the city of Singapore. In order for WEEE plastics to meet their full potential and be used to make high-value end products, solutions must be found for the problem of legacy additives remaining in the materials from their first use. EU collaborative R&D projects tackling the problem include the Nontox project, which is being run by research groups including VTT, Aimplas and Fraunhofer IVV, plus WEEE recyclers Coolrec, Stena Recycling, Galea Polymers and Treee. Aimplas says Nontox is focused on the recovery
of plastics from WEEE, end-of-life vehicles and construction and demolition waste which contain additives such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs), stabilisers and filling materials. It says two different technologies are being used – Extruclean and CreaSolv – to eliminate these hazardous substances from waste plastics such as ABS, EPS, PS, HIPS, PE and PP. The Nontox project was presented at a webinar
in July jointly organised with other EU projects focused on plastics recycling in electronics and other sectors. It is estimated the Nontox process could recycle 2.18m tpa of suitable materials in Europe, increase recycling capacity by 74% and avoid 2.1m tpa of GHG emissions.
26 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2021
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
using Active Hyperspectral (AHS) sensing technol- ogy which identifies plastics containing BFRs. CreaSolv is a solvent-based process that extracts additives and contaminants, while Extruclean is a mechanical recycling process based on extrusion with simultaneous additive extraction using supercritical fluid CO2. “The challenge in the Nontox project is how we can use these technologies to basically serve the purpose of removing the hazardous substances,” said project co-ordinator Muhammad Saad Qureshi, Senior Scientist at VTT-Technical Research Centre, at the webinar. “I believe the technologies are quite ready for commercialisation in a few years.” He answered a question about the AHS technol-
ogy: “At half-way through the project we have been able to achieve efficiency up to 80% in classifying BFR plastics. And we are still progressing with the technology and making it even better.” The Plast2bCleaned collaborative project is also aiming to separate BFRs plus antimony trioxide fire retardant additives from WEEE plastics. Presenting the project at the webinar was its co-ordinator Esther Zondervan-van den Beuken, Senior Consultant Plastics at TNO, who said: “The project is already doing quite well. In bromine reduction, we have almost reached the target [reduction to 0.4%], and for antimony the target has been reached.” The process being developed in the Plast2b-
IMAGE: ALBA
IMAGE: NONTOX
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
