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)提出了一项加拿大范围的生产者责任延伸(EPR)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，大多数当前的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，在当前的EPR倡议下，也只确定了基本的项目，如轮胎、润滑油和电池。因此，我们的大部分废物，特别是来自复杂、耐用的消费品的废物，仍在被填埋。更关键的是，作为我们整个废物流的一个子类别，以塑料为基础的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吨塑料被从处置中转移，但相比之下，有280万吨被处置，据报道，塑料对人类健康和环境影响做出了贡献。对塑料产品进行有效的报废(EoL)管理(减少、再利用、回收)不仅可以从废流中去除大量的塑料，还可以通过将原本被丢弃的材料退回进行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简单物品的“路边”提货术语，如水瓶或简单包装外壳。例如，美国环保署报告称，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，美国生产了近1100万吨塑料作为耐用品，如家用电器。与简单商品相比，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配置相互粘合，使得分离回收在技术上具有挑战性和成本。塑料垃圾的一些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%被收集起来回收利用。最后，即使是相对简单的塑料产品，在特殊情况下也很难回收，例如医疗废物。因此，潜在可回收的东西并不总是被回收。我们提出交替的前处理技术、分离策略和使用增量、多步骤方法的管理策略可以显著提高塑料回收。拟议的研究将：1)确定和开发从复杂的耐用商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碳纤维等新材料，以避免或至少减轻目前塑料废物所产生的未来废物处理影响。为了进行这项研究，将使用具有代表性的复杂物品，如汽车座椅作为测试物品，该物品包含多种材料(泡沫塑料、塑料、金属、纤维)，但通常不会回收，因为将使用材料回收。此外，这项研究还为从博士生到工程学本科生的多名高素质人员(HQP)提供了与废物回收相关的研究技术、工程系统以及管理和沟通方面的宝贵培训。

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.