The presence and partitioning behavior of flame retardants in waste, leachate, and air particles from Norwegian waste-handling facilities
Nicolas A.O. Morin , Patrik L. Andersson , Sarah E. Hale , Hans Peter H. Arp
DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2017.09.005
Received April 01, 2017,Revised July 24, 2017, Accepted September 05, 2017, Available online September 22, 2017
Volume 29,2017,Pages 115-132
Flame retardants in commercial products eventually make their way into the waste stream. Herein the presence of flame retardants in Norwegian landfills, incineration facilities and recycling sorting/defragmenting facilities is investigated. These facilities handled waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), vehicles, digestate, glass, combustibles, bottom ash and fly ash. The flame retardants considered included polybrominated diphenyl ethers (∑ BDE-10) as well as dechlorane plus, polybrominated biphenyls, hexabromobenzene, pentabromotoluene and pentabromoethylbenzene (collectively referred to as ∑ FR-7). Plastic, WEEE and vehicles contained the largest amount of flame retardants (∑ BDE-10: 45,000–210,000 μg/kg; ∑ FR-7: 300–13,000 μg/kg). It was hypothesized leachate and air concentrations from facilities that sort/defragment WEEE and vehicles would be the highest. This was supported for total air phase concentrations (∑ BDE-10: 9000–195,000 pg/m3 WEEE/vehicle facilities, 80–900 pg/m3 in incineration/sorting and landfill sites), but not for water leachate concentrations (e.g., ∑ BDE-10: 15–3500 ng/L in WEEE/Vehicle facilities and 1–250 ng/L in landfill sites). Landfill leachate exhibited similar concentrations as WEEE/vehicle sorting and defragmenting facility leachate. To better account for concentrations in leachates at the different facilities, waste-water partitioning coefficients, Kwaste were measured (for the first time to our knowledge for flame retardants). WEEE and plastic waste had elevated Kwaste compared to other wastes, likely because flame retardants are directly added to these materials. The results of this study have implications for the development of strategies to reduce exposure and environmental emissions of flame retardants in waste and recycled products through improved waste management practices.
