Persistent Organic Pollutants in Separated WEEE Plastics

Brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) are often present in plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). These include persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE's). These are comprised of multiple components such as decabrominated diphenyl ether (decaBDE) (CAS 1163-19-5).

Plastics, containing brominated flame retardants, are separated from other plastics at a small number (5-10) of waste treatment facilities to generate high bromine fractions and low bromine fractions.

The key objectives of this project are to sample and analyse the high and low bromine plastic fractions at each waste treatment facility to: - Provide a consistent picture of their current separation performance to inform the UK position in negotiations on revised low POP content limits for POP PBDE's. - Produce an estimate of the quantity of brominated POP PBDE's in each fraction from each site annually - Present/Develop a consistent sampling and analytical methodology for the sector to use for future process monitoring