Product clustering for closed loop recycling of flame retardant plastics: A case study for flat screen TVs

Abstract

Closing material loops for the housing of electronic equipment remains a particular technical challenge because of the common use of Flame Retardant (FR) plastics. Within an industrial collaboration, series of experiments were setup to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of closed loop recycling of back covers of End-of-Life Flat screen TVs (FTVs). The results of these experiments show that the used type of plastic and FR is strongly producer dependent. Therefore, this paper proposes to cluster FTVs based on product brand to facilitate closed loop recycling of PC-ABS and HIPS-PPO with phosphorous FRs.