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提出了一项加拿大范围的生产者延伸责任行动计划，其中生产者的责任延伸到产品的消费后阶段（加拿大环境部长理事会，2009年）。然而，目前大多数EPR程序目前针对包装，印刷材料，容器，液体和其他简单的产品。即使是复杂的耐用产品，如汽车，也只有基本的物品，如轮胎，液体和电池，在目前的生产者延伸责任倡议下被确定。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，仍在被填埋。更重要的是，作为我们整体废物流的一个子类别，塑料产品对工业和机构废物管理系统构成了最大的挑战之一。在加拿大，2008年有324，731吨塑料被转移，但相比之下，有280万吨塑料被处置，据报道，塑料对人类健康和环境造成了影响。 对塑料制品进行有效的报废（EoL）管理（减少、再利用、回收）不仅可以从废物流中去除大量塑料，还可以通过将其他处置的材料返回再加工来产生经济价值。但塑料回收及其回收方法通常被视为“路边”皮卡条款的简单项目，如水瓶或简单的包装壳。例如，美国环保署报告说，2010年产生了3100万吨塑料，但实际上只有8%的塑料被回收再利用。此外，在美国，近1100万吨塑料是作为耐用品产生的，如电器。与简单的商品相比，复杂的耐用商品对复苏构成重大挑战。不同的材料以更复杂的结构相互结合，使得分离回收技术具有挑战性和昂贵性。塑料垃圾的最大贡献者是废弃电子产品和报废车辆（ELV）：美国环保署估计，2009年所有废弃电子产品中只有25%被收集回收。最后，即使是相对简单的塑料制品，在医疗废物等特殊情况下也很难回收。因此，可能可回收的东西并不总是被回收。我们建议使用增量、多步骤方法的替代预处理技术、分离策略和管理策略可以显着提高塑料回收率。拟议的研究将：1）确定和开发从复杂耐用品中回收塑料的有效方法; 2）评估有效的废物处理技术和方法如何补充和促进有效的EPR计划;以及3）研究如何将结果应用于新材料，如碳纤维，以避免或至少减轻未来的废物处理影响，如目前的塑料废物。为了进行这项研究，一个代表性的，复杂的项目，如汽车座椅将被用作测试项目，其中包含多种材料（泡沫，塑料，金属，纤维），但通常不会回收材料回收将被使用。此外，这项研究还提供了宝贵的培训，研究技术，工程系统，管理和沟通方面的废物回收多个高素质的人员（HQP），从博士生到本科生在工程。

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.