17 Mar BSEF China: New brochure of impact of brominated flame retardants on the recycling of WEEE plastics available in Chinese

The BSEF team in China has translated the brochure Impact of Brominated Flame Retardants on the Recycling of WEEE plastics released by the end of 2020. The brochure based on SOFIEs’ study regarding Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) plastics flows and recycling efforts in Europe addresses misperceptions regarding the impact of Brominated Flame Retardants(BFRs) on WEEE plastics recycling and presents the successes and overarching challenges in making WEEE plastic streams more circular.

BSEF China have been actively communicating these efforts with its stakeholders. At the end of 2020, BSEF China team outreached to Kingfa, which is the leading FR plastics producer in China.

With this, BSEF China hand more information regarding WEEE plastics, for example the fact that WEEE plastics with BFR/FRs are mainly separated according to density. Occasionally WEEE plastics with FRs are separated according to its brands. For instance, the casings of waste Sony TV sets are treated as plastics with no BFRs, while the casings of waste TV sets with China’s local brands are treated as plastics with BFRs. Waste TV sets can be recycled 100% in China. At the same time, WEEE plastics with PBB and PBDE are not recycled while other WEEE plastics are, and there is no such a threshold of 2000ppm for bromine as that in EU. In conclusion BFRs are not hindering WEEE recycling in China.

To access the brochure and other publications in Chinese please check – https://www.bsef.com/china/