Energy recovery in the sustainable recycling of plastics from end-of-life electrical and electronic products

As the collection of end-of-life (EOL) electrical and electronic products from households and businesses increases around the world, the search for economically and environmentally responsible and sustainable recovery and recycling processes intensifies. Since the early 1990s, the global plastics industry has been at the forefront of research, development, and demonstration projects to ensure that sound integrated resource management options exist for plastics. Regional trade associations such as the American Plastics Council (APC), PlasticsEurope (previously the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe or APME), and the Plastics Waste Management Institute of Japan (PWMI) have led much of this effort. Mechanical recycling, feedstock chemical recycling, fuel recovery, and energy recovery technologies have all been significantly advanced through this work. This paper provides an overview of the energy recovery option, which is an important, albeit partial component of this portfolio of resource recovery options. Available in all regions today, energy recovery processes will be an important part of the environmentally and economically sound resource recovery infrastructure for plastics from EOL electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). A significant body of research is summarized that demonstrates that energy recovery not only contributes to reduced fossil fuel consumption by society, but provides an ecologically sound way to manage a significant portion of the plastics from today's EOL EEE.