Guidance highlights dangers in WEEE

CKS Group has discovered serious health risks associated with the use of so called WEEE treatment facilities, and is issuing cautionary guidance to operators.

"The waste industry doesn't have a good safety record, and shortcuts in WEEE treatment threaten to make the risks significantly higher for waste operators and their staff", highlights Phil Sprason, MD of CKS Electronics Recycling.

The UK Health and Safety Executive recently issued a safety alert following nine reported deaths in eight weeks.

Unsurprisingly, the industry was called on to review its procedures.

Although the majority of deaths in the review period were vehicle related, CKS Group has discovered serious health risks associated with the use of so called WEEE treatment facilities, and is issuing cautionary guidance to operators.

Traditional methods for processing mixed scrap metal and plastics tend to rely heavily on high-speed shredders which chop the waste into ever smaller chunks for subsequent separation into discrete fractions via magnetic and other means.

This reduction process generates dust particles which pose particular risks.

Historically, electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has been laden with heavy metals and compounds that are now recognised as being a significant risk to health.

Often these compounds were used simply because there were no viable alternatives, and in the case of bromine these compounds were specifically chosen because of their positive contribution as a flame retardant.

Going forward, the use of such compounds will be strictly controlled via new environmental enforcement measures introduced by the EU and adopted by the UK.

However, for now there is a major problem using equipment and processes designed for scrap metal on waste EEE.

This is a problem that touches everyone.

As Phil Sprason notes: "At 3.3 tonnes of waste EEE per person per lifetime everyone leaves an ecological footprint, especially when you consider 330kg of hazardous waste will be derived from that waste".

If PCBs, batteries, large capacitors and other key components are not specifically removed before processing, the machinery will act as designed and "liberate" the hazards that may otherwise be inert or trapped within the substrate of the component.

The resultant dust can be highly toxic as substances such as mercury, cadmium and others become airborne in unusually high concentrations.

Among the potential contaminants are substances for which little control has yet to be introduced via the Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, such as beryllium.

Beryllium is used in computer equipment and other EEE where light weight, rigidity and dimensional stability are needed.

Beryllium oxide is useful for many applications that require an excellent heat conductor, with high strength and hardness, with a very high melting point, and that acts as an electrical insulator.

Beryllium compounds were once used in fluorescent lighting tubes, but this use was discontinued in 1949 because of berylliosis in the workers manufacturing the tubes.

Beryllium and its compounds should be handled with great care and special precautions must be taken when carrying out any activity which could result in the release of beryllium dust (lung cancer is a possible result of prolonged exposure to beryllium laden dust).

The WEEE Directive provides good guidance for the processing of such equipment and mitigating the risks noted above via proper handling.

However, its guidance is seen as onerous and needlessly involving of manual intervention in proper treatment.

Wary of the cost implications, and keen to re-use existing processes and resources, the traditional scrap metal merchants in the UK have been lobbying hard to avoid full implementation of what is known as "Annex II" of the WEEE Directive.

Sprason comments: "More time and effort needs to be focussed on how to identify and correctly treat the relatively small percentage, but significant amount of Annex II material contained within waste EEE".

Annex II demands the removal of key hazards before shredding can occur.

Simply, compliance with Annex II would mitigate many of the risks discussed above.

The purpose of WEEE processing is to extract reusable minerals and materials, which by definition means that the shredding process can never be completely sealed.

Waste needs to be fed in and processed materials extracted for further refining.

Thus it is not viable for operators to assume that they can deal with the problems via dust extraction, air filtering and the mandated use of full-body bio-hazard suits for staff.

Annex II is not intended to make WEEE processing as cheap as possible, it is intended to make it as safe as is practicable.

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