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Environmental impacts and use of brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic equipment

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  • Sunil Herat

    (Griffith University)

Abstract

Management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste is becoming a major issue as around 20–50 million tons of such waste is generated worldwide and increasing at a higher rate than other solid waste streams. Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) contains over 1,000 materials of which brominated flame retardants (BFRs) such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been the target of the regulators forcing manufacturers to adopt halogen-free flame retardants. As far as these alternatives are concerned, key consideration should be its performance during the whole life cycle through design, use and end-of-life management. The global halogen-free flame retardant movement has reached a point of no return. The most important issue as far as the environment is concerned, for which the transformation to halogen-free retardants was initially targeted, is to make sure that life span of the EEE using the alternatives to BFRs is not shortened thereby resulting in unforeseen increases in e-waste to deal with. The aim of this article is to investigate the environmental issues and current developments related to the use of BFRs in EEE manufacture. It describes the sources, toxicity and human exposure of BFRs, EOL management such as recycling and thermal treatments, exposure of BFRs from e-waste processing facilities and the environment around them and examines the developments and feasibility of the alternatives to BFR in EEE manufacture.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunil Herat, 2008. "Environmental impacts and use of brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic equipment," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 348-357, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:28:y:2008:i:4:d:10.1007_s10669-007-9144-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10669-007-9144-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Unknown, 2004. "End Materials," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 19(4), pages 1-1.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Chuan & Yu, Jie & Wang, Ben & Song, Zijian & Xiang, Jun & Hu, Song & Su, Sheng & Sun, Lushi, 2016. "Chemical recycling of brominated flame retarded plastics from e-waste for clean fuels production: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 433-450.
    2. Mentore Vaccari & Fabiola Zambetti & Margaret Bates & Terry Tudor & Teklit Ambaye, 2020. "Application of an Integrated Assessment Scheme for Sustainable Waste Management of Electrical and Electronic Equipment: The Case of Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, April.

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