Europe and Japan stopped the use of c-OctaBDE in the 1990s. The production of c-OctaBDE in the United States stopped in 2004. The largest c-OctaBDE content is found in polymers (in particular ABS and HIPS) that are used in EEE and WEEE. The use of c-OctaBDE in polymers in the transport sector was limited.
EEE in use, second-hand EEE and WEEE
EEE produced before 2005 maybe flame retarded with c-OctaBDE. The main appliances are television and computer CRT monitors. Large quantities of old EEE and WEEE were - and in some cases still are - exported from industrial countries/regions (e.g. United States, Europe and Japan) to developing countries for reuse or recycling. Primitive recycling technologies for WEEE have resulted in large contaminated areas in developing countries and exposure of recyclers and the general population to the contaminants (Wong et al., 2007; UNEP, 2010a, b).
Plastics from WEEE recycling and production of articles from recycled plastic
The mechanical recycling of plastic for further use is strongly favoured from a waste hierarchy and life cycle assessment perspective. However, when plastics are contaminated with POPs and other hazardous materials particular care has to be given to how the waste hierarchy is followed. The recycling of WEEE results in a fraction of flame-retarded plastic, possibly containing c-OctaBDE. Some plastic from WEEE is sent to developing countries such as China and India where it is recycled into new articles. Recent studies have shown that plastics containing POP-PBDEs and other BFRs have been recycled in the production of articles for which no flame retardancy is required including children’s toys, household goods and video tapes (Hirai and Sakai, 2007; Chen et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2010). This shows that the flow of plastics containing POP-PBDEs and other flame retardants for recycling are not well controlled and that plastics containing POP-PBDEs are being mixed with non-flame-retarded polymers for the production of items with sensitive end uses. Therefore, in some cases, the use of recycled plastic may be significantly more hazardous than the original use (recycling from a printer housing into a toy that may be chewed by a child, for example).
