Complex Consumer Products, their Impacts on End-of-Life Waste Management, and Extended Producer Responsibility

2009年，加拿大环境部长理事会（CCME）提出了一项扩大生产者责任（EPR）的加拿大行动计划，其中生产者的责任延伸到产品的消费后阶段（CCME 2009）。然而，目前大多数EPR计划目前针对的是包装、印刷材料、容器、液体和其他简单产品。即使是复杂、耐用的产品，如汽车，目前的EPR计划也只确定了轮胎、液体和电池等基本物品。因此，我们的大部分废物，特别是来自复杂耐用消费品的废物，仍然被填埋。更重要的是，作为我们整个废物流的一个子类，塑料制品对工业和机构废物管理系统构成了最大的挑战之一。2008年，加拿大从处置中转移了324,731吨塑料，但相比之下处置了280万吨，据报告，塑料对人类健康和环境有影响。

In 2009, the Canadian Council for Ministers of the Environment (CCME) put forth a Canada wide action plan for extended producer responsibility (EPR) in which the producer’s responsibility extends to the post-consumer phase of a product (CCME 2009). Most current EPR programs, however, currently target packaging, print materials, containers, liquids, and other simple products. Even for complex, durable products, such as automobiles, only basic items, such as tires, fluids, and batteries are identified under current EPR initiatives. As a result, much of our waste, especially if coming from complex, durable consumer products, is still being landfilled. More critically, as a sub-category of our overall waste stream, plastic-based products pose one of the greatest challenges to industrial and institutional waste management systems. In Canada in 2008, 324,731 tonnes of plastics were diverted from disposal, but 2.8 million tonnes in comparison were disposed, and plastics have been reported to contribute to human health and environmental impacts. Effective end-of-life (EoL) management (reduction, reuse, recycling) of plastic goods can not only remove significant amounts of plastics from waste streams, it also produces economic value by returning an otherwise disposed material for reprocessing. But plastics recovery and their recovery methods are typically viewed in "curbside" pickup terms for simple items, such as water bottles or simple packaging shells. For example, the US EPA reports that in 2010, 31M tons of plastic were generated, but only 8% of the total plastics were actually recovered for recycling. Furthermore, almost 11 million tons of plastic was generated as durable goods in the US, such as appliances. Compared to simple goods, complex, durable goods pose significant challenges for recovery. Distinct materials are bonded to each other in more complex configurations, making separation for recovery technologically challenging and expensive. Some of the greatest contributors to plastics waste are waste electronics and end-of-life vehicles (ELVs): the US EPA estimates that only 25% of all discarded electronics in 2009 were even collected for recycling. Lastly, even relatively simple plastic products can be difficult to recover in specialized situations, such as medical waste. Thus, what is potentially recyclable is not always recovered. We propose that alternate pretreatment techniques, separation strategies, and management strategies that use incremental, multi-step approaches can significantly improve plastics recovery. The proposed research will: 1) identify and develop effective approaches to recovering plastics from complex, durable goods; 2) assess how effective waste handling techniques and approaches can complement and promote effective EPR programs; and 3) examine how the outcomes can be applied to new materials, such as carbon fibre, to avoid or at least mitigate future waste handling effects as experienced currently with plastic wastes. To undertake this research, a representative, complex item, such as an automotive car seat will be used as a test item which embodies multiple materials (foams, plastics, metal, fibre) but is often not typically recovered for materials recovery will be used. Furthermore, this research also provides valuable training in research techniques, engineering systems, and management and communication aspects related to waste recovery for multiple highly qualified personnel (HQP) ranging from PhD candidates to undegraduate students in engineering.