White goods recycling in the United States: Economic and technical issues in recovering, reclaiming, and reusing nonmetallic materials
Obsolete white goods (appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, ranges, dishwashers, water heaters, dehumidifiers, and air conditioners) contain significant quantities of recyclable materials, but because of economic and environmental concerns, only limited quantities of these scrap materials are currently being recycled. Appliances are manufactured from a mix of materials, such as metals, polymers, foam, and fiberglass; metals represent more than 75% of the total weight. Appliance recycling is driven primarily by the value of the steel in the appliances. Over the last 15 years, however, the use of polymers in appliance manufacturing has increased substantially at the expense of metals. The shift in the materials composition of appliances may threaten the economics of the use of obsolete appliances as a source for scrap metals. To increase the recycling of white goods, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable technologies must be developed to separate, recover, reclaim, and reuse polymers from discarded appliances. Argonne National Laboratory is currently conducting research, with industry support, to develop cost-effective processes and methods for recovering and reclaiming acrylonitrile butadiene-styrene and High-density polystyrene from discarded appliances. This collaborative research focuses on developing a combination of mechanical/physical and chemical separation methods for recovering and reusing these high-value plastics. In addition, cost-effective methods for improving the performance characteristics of the recovered plastics are being investigated with the goal of recycling these plastics to their original application. In this paper, we examine the technical and economic issues that affect the recycling of white goods and present results of Argonne`s white goods recycling research and development activities.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 10113166
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ES/CP-84504; CONF-941191-1; ON: DE95005854; TRN: 95:001577
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 10. international conference on solid waste management,Philadelphia, PA (United States),13-16 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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