Viable plastics recycling from end-of-life electronics

Millions of end-of-life (EOL) electronic products represent more than one million tons of engineering thermoplastics. The economically and environmentally sound recovery of engineering thermoplastics from EOL electronics is a challenge to the sustainability of electronics manufacturing. In this paper, we review the technologies to separate and identify pure post-consumer plastics from EOL electronics, which are followed by the comparison of electronic plastics recycling processes and the network models for plastics recycling processes. We also review successful plastics recycling practices for electronics. In addition, further research directions for recycling plastics from EOL electronics are discussed.

I. Introduction

More than 400 million electronic products per year will reach the end of their lives by 2010 according to estimates from the International Association of Electronics Recyclers [23]. As new electronic component prices plummet, fewer end-of-life (EOL) electronic components are recycled for reuse. A small fraction is processed for metals recovery; the remainder are stored or disposed. EOL electronics represent not only more than a billion pounds of metals, but also a stream of engineering thermoplastics that approaches a material equivalent to the petrochemical output of the North Slope of Alaska [57]. The consumption of petroleum resources for plastics production and the accumulation of plastic wastes from EOL electronics present well-known challenges to the sustainability of contemporary manufacturing [18], [32]. Recycling rate is one of 35 indices for sustainability [58]. Concerns over fast increasing electronic waste, consumption of nonrenewable resources, hazardous materials in electronics, and rapidly consumed landfill space have prompted governments to develop stiffer regulations for recycling electronic waste [16], [40].