PMID- 33773338
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210518
LR  - 20210518
IS  - 1879-1026 (Electronic)
IS  - 0048-9697 (Linking)
VI  - 780
DP  - 2021 Aug 1
TI  - Assessment of brominated flame retardants in a small mixed waste electronic and 
      electrical equipment (WEEE) plastic recycling stream in the UK.
PG  - 146543
LID - S0048-9697(21)01611-9 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146543 [doi]
AB  - Identifying the presence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) within individual 
      polymer types prior to extrusion has given us a unique perspective on which 
      polymers may be problematic in meeting European Union (EU) low persistent organic 
      pollutant (POP) content limits (LPCLs) and the potential for mixed engineering 
      plastics (MEP) to be used as a viable recycled product. Our findings suggest that 
      careful management of the polymer types within the feed chips prior to extrusion 
      could deliver extruded polymer pellets that meet the EU LPCL values for POP-BFRs 
      (i.e. <1000 mg/kg). Within this study, three fractions of extruded polymer 
      pellets ("light", "medium", and "heavy" MEP) were created using density 
      separation. Each fraction was characterised for 28 legacy and novel BFRs with 
      brominated diphenyl ether-209 (BDE-209) (68-37,000 mg/kg) and 
      tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A) (17-120,000 mg/kg) both predominant and 
      ubiquitous. Portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was utilised to measure Br in 120 
      individual MEP chips of various polymer types. Those chips that XRF flagged as 
      having high Br concentrations (>2500 mg/kg) were subjected to further evaluation 
      for BFR content via mass spectrometry analysis and the results compared with the 
      XRF Br data. This revealed that in 22% of the 120 chips studied, XRF incorrectly 
      identified the LPCL to be exceeded. Our data also identifies the presence of the 
      novel BFRs decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) and 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) 
      ethane (BTBPE) in plastics derived from waste electronic and electrical equipment 
      (WEEE). While the "light-MEP" samples contained POP-BFR concentrations below 
      LPCLs, the "medium-MEP" and "heavy-MEP" fractions exceeded such limits. 
      Management of the polymer chips by colour sorting resulted in significant 
      reductions in concentrations of all BFRs in the clear polymers such that LPCL 
      limits were not exceeded; however, concentration reductions in white polymers 
      were insufficient to meet LPCLs.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Stubbings, W A
AU  - Stubbings WA
AD  - School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, 
      Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Electronic address: william.a.stubbings@gmail.com.
FAU - Abdallah, M A-E
AU  - Abdallah MA
AD  - School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, 
      Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
FAU - Misiuta, K
AU  - Misiuta K
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - Onwuamaegbu, U
AU  - Onwuamaegbu U
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - Holland, J
AU  - Holland J
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - Smith, L
AU  - Smith L
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - Parkinson, C
AU  - Parkinson C
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - McKinlay, R
AU  - McKinlay R
AD  - Axion Polymers, Salford M6 6RX, UK.
FAU - Harrad, S
AU  - Harrad S
AD  - School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, 
      Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210318
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Sci Total Environ
JT  - The Science of the total environment
JID - 0330500
SB  - IM
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - BFRs
OT  - E-waste
OT  - LPCL
OT  - Mixed engineering plastics
OT  - Persistent organic pollutants
OT  - Polymers
OT  - XRF
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2021/03/28 06:00
MHDA- 2021/03/28 06:01
CRDT- 2021/03/27 20:18
PHST- 2020/11/10 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/03/09 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2021/03/13 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/03/28 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/03/28 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/03/27 20:18 [entrez]
AID - S0048-9697(21)01611-9 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146543 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Total Environ. 2021 Aug 1;780:146543. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146543. 
      Epub 2021 Mar 18.