"Green Products," A Challenge to Flame-Retardant Plastics - ACS

Chapter 35

"Green Products," A Challenge to Flame-Retardant Plastics

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Recycling, Marking, Ecolabeling, and Product Take-Back Gordon L. Nelson Florida Institute of Technology, 150 West University Boulevard, Melbourne, FL 32901-6988

Recycling will be an important factor in such high technology applications as automotive and electrical/electronic applications in the future. Recycling refers to the entire product, not just a few components such as plastics. Elements of application design include: - Ease of product disassembly - Labeling for material identification - Reuse and recycling of all components, including plastics - Minimization of materials to maximize the recycle stream volume - Compliance with "Eco-label" requirements as well as safety regulatory, and legal requirements. In Europe there have been a number of challenges to the use of flame retardant plastics, particularly halogenated. Europeans also regard the use of flame retardant plastics in many electrical/electronic applications as unnecessary since electronics are designed to be "fail safe". Incineration and processing issues have raised questions about formation of brominated dioxan and furans from brominated flame retardants. Ecolabels such as TCO95 have called for the absence of "bromided products." Material consolidation and reuse will change the economic equations. Indeed, The emergence of "green" products has added a new dimension to product design and is beginning to change the materials used in some high technology applications. The issue is more than simple material recyclability, but involves rethinking product life cycles to develop "environmentally conscious products."

0097H5156/95/0599-0579$12.00/0 © 1995 American Chemical Society Nelson; Fire and Polymers II ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1995.

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Introduction Materials are used in applications for a defined set of reasons, ej*., functionality, cost, regulation. For example plastics used in electrical/electric applications for enclosures must resist impact and heat in addition to being ignition resistant. The emergence of "green" products with the requirement for recycling has added a new dimension to product design. The issue is more than material recyclability, however simple or complex that may be, but involves rethinking the entire end product life cycle in an effort to develop products which in their totality have a lesser effect on human health and the environment than alternative products. In the information and telecommunications products industries companies are much involved in life cycle analysis and in the development of environmentally conscious products (ECP). One company, IBM Corporation, for example, has released a policy letter (November, 1990) and a directive (January, 199Î) and is continually tracking the progress being made by various IBM divisions in accomplishing ECP goals. In November, 1991, the Corporation established an Engineering Center for Environmentally Conscious Products at IBM, Research Triangle Park, N.C. The mission of the Engineering Center is "to provide guidance and leadership in the development and manufacturing of ECPs which are safe for their intended use, protective of the environment and that can be recycled, re-utilized, or disposed of safely." (1) There is clear upsurge of interest in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe in the environmental aspects of products, including eco-labeling of products. Internationally the International Standards Organization is developing ISO14000 on environmental management. This standard, which is expected to have an effect similar to ISO9000 on quality, will deal with both organization, evaluation and product evaluation; the first standards are expected in 1996. It is expected that documents on "Environmental Management System-Specification" and on "Guide to Environmental Management Principles, Systems and Supporting Techniques" will be approved as ISO Draft International Standards (DIS) in mid-1995 by ISO Technical Committee 207. Work in ISO TC 207 is divided into six areas: • environmental management system • environmental auditing • environmental labeling • environmental performance evaluation • life cycle assessment, and • environmental aspects of product standards In the last area a "Guide for the Inclusion of Environmental Aspects in Product Standards" is also expected to be available as a DIS in 1995 (2-4). Guidance documents are being prepared on environmental labeling and on self-declaration of environmental claims. One view of the process to achieve ecologically sound manufacturing processes and products is shown in Figure 1. This is a process of continuous improvement. In the United States President Clinton issued Executive Order 12873 on October 20, 1993, entitled Federal Acquisition, Recycling and Waste Prevention. This order encourages the Federal purchase of "environmentally preferable products." EPA

Nelson; Fire and Polymers II ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1995.


Consumer Awareness and Choice

Public Listing of Company Environmental I I Performance I 1

Inventory of emissions, discharges and wastes

Ecological Label

Environmental Audit

Figure 1. Process to achieve ecologically sound manufacturing process and products

Company Image Market Share Liability Performance Company Financial Performance

Product

Production Process



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is to issue guidance principles and procurement guidelines. Environmentally preferable products or services are those which "have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose." Product attributes among many as listed in the EPA concept paper include (5): - Product contains higher recycled content - Product is reusable or recyclable - Safety (e.g. flammability) Recycling is therefore in the broader context of environmentally preferable products (6,7). Product life cycle assessment is of developing importance in such high technology applications as automotive and electrical/electronics. In the latter the International Electrotechnical Commission has a draft EEC Guide: Environmental Aspects: Inclusion in Electrotechnical Product Standards (8). Guidance includes design for disassembly and recyclability, and design for materials recyclability. Reuse, refurbishment, or reengineering are preferable to materials recycling. This is in the context of developing product take back requirements in Europe which may also substantiality impact such applications as electrical /electronics. Elements of materials recycling include: - Ease of product disassembly - may require new materials - Labeling for material identification - Minimization of number of materials to maximize the recycle stream - Ease of reuse or refurbishment - Maintenance of properties on recycling - Compliance with "Eco-label" requirements as well as applicable safety and regulatory requirements. The need may be for fewer, more robust materials. One will choose the best compromise materials rather than a large number of tailored materials. There may be a larger number of applications in fewer materials. Indeed, GE Plastics for example announced in 1994 that it will be reducing the number of resin grades by 40% over the next three years. How does all this affect the use of flame retardant flame plastics? Requirements for product take backs and for recycled content will cause Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's) to rethink product designs and the materials used. Are the materials used readily recyclable? By current technology? Are there environmental issues with the materials used? If the design is changed perhaps fire retardant materials are really not needed. Indeed, recycling of products is an issue which is already here. For example, intense discussion in the electrical/electronics industry has occurred over the past three years. Design of products for disassembly, reuse and recycling is underway in many companies (6-7). The remainder of this paper will focus on electrical/electronic products as the example. The reader should recognize that similar discussions are occurring in other industries.


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"Green Products," A Challenge to Flame-Retardant Plastics


Plastics Part Identification The labeling of plastic parts has begun by many computer and automotive manufacturers using International Standard ISOl 1469 (9). The chasing arrows symbol, which is mandated by law in 39 U.S. states, covers plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers (between 8 ounces and 5 gallons). This symbol has come under attack by some environmental groups on the basis that the implication to the consumer is that a product bearing the symbol is recyclable in an existing well defined collection route and recycling process. The Society of the Plastics Industry and the National Recycling Coalition had agreed to change the chasing arrows to a triangle and to use ISO acronyms for products not required to carry the chasing arrows. The ISO 11469 code was recommended for use for durable products. (10) For high density polyethylene the examples are as follows:

Ι HDPE

Κν,,ρ,,-,,Ι,

•

Τπφ,,,,,Ι

Modified •

HDPE

New

PE-HD

and the ISO 11469 mark

>PE-HD< In May, 1994, this agreement broke down, with the National Recycling Coalition wanting a square or rectangle (11). On September 23, 1994, the SPI Board of Directors reaffirmed support for the "chasing arrows" identification code and endorsed efforts to encourage its proper use as an identifier for recyclers. (12-13). With the breakdown of the SPI/NRC agreement the information processing industry is continuing its implementation of the ISOl 1469 marking system using ISO approved acronyms. It has been the recommendation of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) Plastics Task Group that on the line below the ISO mark that a more complete resin designation be given either by trade name and number or a code (as is done in the case of IBM) (14). A 1992 survey noted that most companies are now using variants of this approach. Some within the flame retardant supplier community had recommended detailed notation of flame retardant type as part of part marking. Unless incorporated into the ISO standard, that is not likely to find acceptance as it is likely to be confusing and cumbersome. However "FR" for flame retardant has been accepted as an abbreviation in the ISOl 1469 Standard indicating that a material is flame retardant, e.g., >PC - FR< for flame retardant polycarbonate.


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There was a copyright issue for use of the chasing arrows in Europe which was resolved in 1994. However, there is continuing discussion of the meaning of the symbol (15). Widening international acceptance of IS011469 is leading to the general use of ISO11469 for plastics used in durable goods. Thus there is consensus for a molded-in identification of all but very small plastic parts in electrical/electronic applications.


Eco-labels The second element of discussion is the advent of the ecological label. In September, 1991, the German environment agency launched an eco-label for copiers, "Blue Angel". By mid-1992 nearly every copier manufacturer in Germany had at least 1 copier with this new eco-label (16). The plastics requirements for Blue Angel copiers include: - Design for disassembly and recycling - Use of a uniform plastic for large plastic housings and subassemblies, with the plastic recyclable by existing technologies for the manufacture of equivalent products - No polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers should be used and "flame retardant materials used must have no carcinogen or dioxin or furane-forming effect." - Parts must be labeled using the ISO standard - Plastics andflameretardants used must be specified. "Blue Angel" published requirements for conditions for award of the environmental symbol for "environmentalfriendlypersonal computers "in late 1994 (17). The environment symbol is intended "to denote products in cases where the potentially long service life of the system and its components, a design which favors the recycling of parts, and possibilities for reusing and recycling used products or product components are all linked." The requirements for plastics include specifications (17): 1) that large size-case parts and modules made of plastics consist of a uniform polymer (homopolymer or copolymer) to ensure reutilization on the basis of existing technologies for the production of high-quality and long lived industrial products. The plastic cases should consist of two separable polymers at the most. 2) that the plastics do not contain any cadmium-containing or lead-containing additives and that the plastics used are recyclable with the help of existing technologies. Excluded are small plastic parts (less than 25 g) which must be made of highly specialized plastics in order to achieve specific properties, 3) that no polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and short-chain chlorinated paraffins (chain length: 10-13 C-atoms, chlorine content

"Green Products," A Challenge to Flame-Retardant Plastics - ACS

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