PC/ABS recovered from shredded waste electrical and electronics equipment

Abstract

Our industry leading separation technology enables us to recover a variety of plastics from complex mixed streams such as shredded waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Plastic flakes recovered using our process are compounded and sold as pellets suitable for use in injection molding applications. Polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) have been in our product portfolio for nearly a decade. We now participate in the circular economy by selling these products into applications including new electrical and electronic equipment (E&EE). PP, ABS and HIPS make up only slightly over half of the plastics in WEEE, though, so recovery of additional plastics is desirable for both economic and environmental reasons. Recently we have begun to recover polycarbonate (PC) and blends of PC with ABS (PC/ABS) to expand our range of plastic products. This paper looks at the challenges of recovering plastics from WEEE, as well as the properties of the PC/ABS product we have recovered and compounded into pellets. Finally, we describe how the design of E&EE can enable the use of post-consumer recycled plastics from WEEE.