Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are synthetic additives mainly used in electrical and electronic appliances and in construction materials. The properties of some BFRs are typical for persistent organic pollutants, and certain BFRs, in particular some polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), are suspected to cause adverse health effects. Global consumption of the most demanded BFRs, i.e., penta-, octa-, and decaBDE, tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and HBCD, has doubled in the 1990s. Only limited and rather uncertain data are available regarding the occurrence of BFRs in consumer goods and waste fractions as well as regarding emissions during use and disposal. The knowledge of anthropogenic substance flows and stocks is essential for early recognition of environmental impacts and effective chemicals management. In this paper, actual levels of penta-, octa-, and decaBDE, TBBPA, and HBCD in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a major carrier of BFRs are presented. These BFRs have been determined in products of a modern Swiss recycling plant applying gas chromatography/electron capture detection and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis. A substance flow analysis (SFA) technique has been used to characterize the flows of target substances in the recycling process from the bulk WEEE input into the output products. Average concentrations in small size WEEE, representing the relevant electric and electronic appliances in WEEE, sampled in 2003 amounted to 34 mg/kg for pentaBDE, 530 mg/kg for octaBDE, 510 mg/kg for decaBDE, 1420 mg/kg for TBBPA (as an additive), 17 mg/kg for HBCD, 5500 mg/kg for bromine, and 1700 mg/kg for antimony. In comparison to data that have been calculated by SFA for Switzerland from literature for the 1990s, these measured concentrations in small size WEEE were 7 times higher for pentaBDE, unexpectedly about 50% lower for decaBDE, and agreed fairly well for TBBPA (as an additive) and octaBDE. Roughly 60% of the total bromine input determined by SFA based on X-ray fluorescence analysis of the output materials of the recycling plant cannot be assigned to the selected BFRs. This is an indication for the presence of other brominated substances as substitutes for PBDEs in electrical and electronic equipment. The presence of BFRs, in particular PBDEs in the low grams per kilogram concentration range, in the fine dust fraction recovered in the off-gas purification system of the recycling plant reveals a high potential for BFR emissions from WEEE management and point out the importance for environmentally sound recycling and disposal technologies for BFR-containing residues.
For efficient waste management, instruments are needed to assess the impact of legislative, organizational, and technical measures on the waste stream. Since waste incineration plants transform heterogeneous wastes into more homogeneous residues, they are well suited for easy and cost-effective monitoring of the chemical composition of wastes. A method is proposed to determine changes in the chemical waste composition by analyzing a single incineration residue only. Procedures are presented to (a) select the appropriate incineration residue to be analyzed, (b) determine the minimum sampling frequency of the residue, and (c) analyze the chemical composition of municipal solid waste routinely with a given accuracy. Field measurements demonstrate that, with a reasonable effort, the annual mean concentration of Zn and Cd in MSW can be determined with an uncertainty of less than 10% and of Cu and Pb with less than 20%, respectively. The proposed method, which can be extended to nonmetals also, serves as a base to use waste incineration plants as a routine tool for quality control in waste management.
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