The Effects of Bromine Additives on the Recyclability of Injection Molded Electronic Waste Polymers

Abstract

Excessive waste amounts, such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and plastic waste, have increased simultaneously with the development of society. Despite the increased material amounts, the recycling rates are too low and those have a great potential to contribute actions toward a circular economy. A certain restricted factor for recycling is the heterogenous nature of materials, such as WEEE-included additives. This study investigates the effects of a WEEE polymer including bromine on recycling ability, analyzing its physical and mechanical features. The study demonstrates that polymer sorting is profitable for WEEE polymers from the material qualitative perspective, because various processability and material features are achieved in the study between material categories, and especially unidentified polymers have the weakest features in the studied tests. The separation of bromine concentration is also recommended because bromine-free materials have more advanced features that can be confirmed by statistical analyses. The achieved results support the idea that novel circular economy actions have the potential for effective, efficient WEEE polymer recycling processes with technological innovations, especially when all variables (e.g., recycling cycles and process parameters) are observed and it enables an option to reduce the need for virgin plastic.