A 500ppm limit of flame retardant decaBDEs within recycled compounds and articles that looks set to be agreed by the EU Commission soon has been welcomed by Axion Polymers as ‘leaving the door open’ for plastic recycling and the use of recyclate in new products.
Although it would be tougher to achieve than the proposed 1,000ppm in line with most REACH and RoHS regulations. Virgin polymers have a 10ppm limit, The Manchester-based plastics recycler describes the 500ppm level in recycled plastics as a ‘workable’ solution.
“Professional companies that have spent time trying to inform and address the EU Parliament in the management of decaBDEs in recycled plastics will welcome the recast of the EU directive as a sensible way forward,” said Keith Freegard, Axion’s Associate Consultant.
“It also means we can continue recycling plastics at our Trafford Park and Salford facilities, and crucially, that our customers can continue to use recycled plastics in eco-design components along circular economy principles.”
However, while the 500ppm is a workable compromise, the planned review in the EU after just two years could present further business challenges for recyclers, according to Keith, who believes this timescale is ‘too short’ for long-term projects.
Axion
Keith Freegard, Axion’s Associate Consultant.
Research shows that it takes approximately 10 years for the effect of a ban in new products to be seen in the infeed material at the recycling plants.
“For a review of the acceptable level of decaBDEs in recycled plastic mixtures, industry should show the regulators how the rate declines over time as eventually these legacy additives are mostly eradicated in new components,” he continues.
With car manufacturers reducing their use since 2008-2012, Freegard believes that a similar ‘ramp down’ would be evident in waste plastics but delayed by the average lifetime of a vehicle, which is around 13 years.
“Hence recyclers may well be seeing trace levels of decaBDEs tail off from 2020 to 2025 and onward to 2030. Any review must be based on firm evidence from European recyclers about how detected levels are changing with time, which could be used to estimate a scientifically-based ramp-down rate for mixtures and articles.”
The European CENELEC treatment standard uses 2,000ppm as the basis for deciding to ‘separately remove and treat’ waste plastics in WEEE products.
Freegard argues that the level set for input waste streams to recyclers should be higher than that for output polymer products, due to final, accurate separation of BFR-containing plastic particles is done using advanced technology in refining plants.
“Those materials should be processed in the domestic market, ensuring banned chemicals are removed and supporting further investment in large-scale technical plants in Europe,” he continues.
He warns that exporting banned flame retardant plastic to Asia, without proper controls in place, risks ‘cheap, uncontrolled’ imports back into Europe of goods in which the banned chemicals have not been removed.
Concluding, he asserts that setting ‘sensible and pragmatic’ levels for decaBDE limits in waste plastics moved across the world would:
- Ensure a ‘level playing field’ for high-tech recyclers
- Stop the escape of valuable resources to other countries
- Help to ensure that imported goods made with recycled WEEE or ELV plastics meet EU safety standards
- Encourage much-needed investment in European and UK recycling infrastructure, further developing the transition to a circular economy for plastics