Recycling of high performance polymers from Electro(nic) scrap

Electro(nic) scrap contains valuable resources of plastics, including high impact polystyrene (HIPS), acrylonitrile- butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polypropylene (PP). Recovery of these secondary raw materials from e-waste is a challenging task since diverse polymer types are present in e-waste mixtures and many plastics contain high amounts of contaminants, which are listed in the European RoHS Directive. Former studies revealed that the solvent based CreaSolv® Process is capable of extracting valuable polymers out of polymer scrap from e-waste and to separate these from contaminants effectively. However, business models showed that revenues from recycled polymers typically only slightly exceed conversation cost, if at all.