Case study on inventory of PBDEs in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and related waste (WEEE)-Experience Sharing-SCRCAP

Case study on inventory of PBDEs in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and related waste (WEEE)

Scenario for this Case Study

This case study has been carried out in a country being at its initial stages of updating its National Implementation Plan (NIP) to include the newly listed POPs. So far no detailed inventories on EEE and WEEE have been conducted; however a preliminary e-waste assessment focusing on ICT equipment including computers and televisions has already been developed. Because significant concentrations of PBDEs are found in CRT monitors of computers and TVs, the preliminary assessment could be used to estimate the inventory of POP – BDEs in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and waste of electronical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the country.

The e-waste assessment was conducted by local experts in collaboration with international experts for purposes of establishing the magnitude of the flow of EEE and generation of e-waste and subsequently identifying suitable measures to be put in place for sustainable e-waste management in the country.

The national focal point for the Stockholm Convention and/or Basel Convention is responsible for the establishment of the inventory committee. The government is planning to re-establish the old committee which comprises various stakeholders as suggested in the guidance manual. National experts who are knowledgeable in e-waste and e-waste assessment methodologies will be invited during the inception workshop in order to provide more information on the approach. The objectives and work plan for the NIP will also be formulated during this first meeting of the steering committee and stakeholders.

1. Initial Assessment

The initial assessment was done through literature search and consultations with the relevant stakeholders including the national data on imports/exports and focal point for the Basel and Stockholm Conventions. The main objective was to collect existing information on the past and present import and use of POP-PBDEs and articles containing POP-PBDEs in the country. The following information was obtained:

· POP-PBDEs and articles containing POP-PBDEs have never been produced in the country;

· The country imports and uses articles and products that could contain POP-PBDEs, particularly used EEE and used vehicles;

· A database of imports/exports of EEEs and other traded goods into/from the country is available (from 1998) at the Statistics Department of the National Customs Office;

· A country e-waste assessment report focussing on ICT equipment is available

The collected information was evaluated and analyzed for gaps. The following were among the identified gaps:

· Lack of comprehensive national inventory of EEE and WEEE

· Lack of distinction between new and second hand products in the import/export register

· Lack of penetration data of CRTs (from TVs and PCs) in the country

2. Preliminary Inventory

Due to non-existence of an EEE/WEEE inventory in the country, a preliminary inventory of POP-PBDEs content in CRT Monitors in the country was estimated using penetration data of CRTs from the region and population in the country as recommended in the guidance manual.

The calculation of c-OctaBDE in CRT devices was done as follows:

M_PBDE(i) = No of CRTs/capita_Region x population x 25 kg x 0.3 x 0.0015= 0.2 x 42,500,000 x 25kg x 0.3 x 0.0015 = 95,625kg

The POP-PBDES (HeptaBDE and HexaBDE) in the c-OctaBDE was then calculated according to the distribution shares given in the guidance. Table 1 shows the preliminary inventory results.

Table 1: Preliminary inventory of POP-PBDE in CRT Monitors

Homologues	Distribution homologues c-OctaBDE	Total c-OctaBDE (kg)
Inventoried c-OctaBDE
HexaBDE	11% x 95625	10,518.75
HeptaBDE	43% x 95625	41,118.75
c-OctaBDE**	35% x 95625	33,468.75
NonaBDE**	10% x 95625	9,562.50
DecaBDE-**	1% x 95625	956.25
*Total*		95,625.00

3. In-depth Inventory

An e-waste assessment focusing mainly on computers and other ICT equipment (WEEE category 3 and 4) was conducted in 2010. The e-waste assessment addressed the three stages in the life cycle of EEE (i.e. imports of new and second hand, EEE stocks and EEE entering the waste stream) focusing mainly on computers and other ICT equipment (WEEE category 3 and 4). This section describes the approach used in the assessment and how the results thereof were used to calculate the amount of POP-PBDEs in the country.

3.1 Planning

In planning for the e-waste assessment, a team of local experts drawn from various institutions were first sensitized and trained by an international expert on e-waste hazards and the approach for conducting an e-waste assessment. Thereafter, the assessment team visited key stakeholders in the country for purposes of sensitizing them about the study and to seek their commitment in the study. Among the visited stakeholders included government institutions (e.g. Ministry responsible for industry and trade, Ministry responsible for environment, Environmental Management Agency and the Ministry responsible for ICT) and e-waste collectors.

3.2 Identification of stakeholders

The key stakeholders of EEE and WEEE were identified. They include importers, distributors and retailers, consumers (individuals, private companies and government ministries/organizations), repair workshops/technicians (re-furbishers), collectors, recyclers and disposers.

3.3 Inventory of Stocks and flows of EEE/WEEE

3.3.1 Imports of new and second-hand EEE

Statistical data on imports of ICT products into the country were drawn from national and international import statistical databases mainly the National Customs Office and the UN-COMTRADE. Since import data from both national and international databases did not distinguish new and second-hand EEE, the expert team conducted a survey in selected distributors/retailers of computers in order to establish the share of second-hand products. Based on the survey, share of second-hand computers in total imports was found to be 13% which are mainly sold to households.

Estimation of POP-PBDEs in imported computers and TVs was done using the following key data and assumptions extracted from the country report:

· Imported computers (unit items) in 2009: 120,000 units;

· Average wt per unit computers (kg) : 13;

· Thereof total wt of imported computers: 1,560,000 kg;

· Share of imported second hand computers: 13%;

· Imported TVs in 2009: 995,622 kg;

· Share of imported second-hand TVs: 13%.

Table 2 shows the estimated POP-PBDEs in imported computers and Televisions in 2009:

Table 2: Estimated POP-PBDEs in imported computers and televisions in 2009:

WEEE Category	Product	Amount of imported EEE (new + second hand) in 2009 (in tonnes) (a)	Share of second-hand EEE among the imports (%wt) (b)	Total polymer fraction in EEE (% wt) (c)	Content of c-OctaBDE in total polymer fraction of EEE (kg/tonne) (d)	Total amount of c-OctaBDE (a) x (b) x (c) x (d)
3	Personal Computers	1560	13%	42%	0.225	19.16
4	Televisions	995.6	13%	24%	0.15	4.66

3	CRT computer monitors			30%	2.54
4	CRT-TVs			30%	0.87

	Total amount of c-OctaBDE in imported second hand EEE					23.82

3.3.2 EEE in use or stored at consumer level

The total stocked EEE in the country were estimated at three major consumer levels namely, government, private companies and households.

Private Consumers (Households)

The stocked EEE at households was first estimated using penetration data of specific appliances from the country (where available) and other countries of similar development growth (e.g. Ghana) as recommended in the guidance manual. The total weight of the EEE in category 3 and 4 was calculated by multiplying the penetration data by the average weight of the appliance and the population in the country. The key data in Table 4-5 of the manual was used except for personal computers where a penetration rate of 0.02 was used (a figure is given in the country e-waste study). Table 3 shows the estimated amount of stocked EEE.

Table 3: Preliminary estimation of stocked EEE (category 3 & 4) in Households

Type of Equipment	Penetration Rate (no. per person)	Population	Estimated wt (kg)	Total wt (Tonnes)
Personal Computer	0.02	42,500,000	9.9	8,415.00
Mobile Phone	0.72	42,500,000	0.1	3,060.00
TV	0.2	42,500,000	31.6	268,600.00
Radio / Hifi	0.28	42,500,000	6	71,400.00
Total				351,475.00

A survey was also conducted in 24 households using the questionnaire recommended in the guidance manual to establish the amount of stocked EEE and WEEE. The total weight of EEE in households was then calculated by multiplying the weight of EEE per household by the national data of total households in the country. Tables 4 and 5 show the results of the survey.

Table 4: EEE/WEEE stocked in households (Category 3)

IT Equipment (WEEE Cat. 3)	No. of units per household	Estimated wt (kg)	Total wt per household (kg)	Total no. of households	Total wt in households (Tonnes)
Fax machine	0		0
Phones	0.33	1	0.33		2,310
Mobile Phones	6.42	0.1	0.64		4,480
Laptops	0.71	3.5	2.49		17,430
PCs	0.46	9.9	4.55		31,850
LCD monitor	0.4	4.7	1.88		13,160
CRTs monitor	0.08	14.1	1.13		7,910
Modems	0.29
Printers	0.33	6.5	2.15		15,050
Scanners	0		0
Copy machines	0	52	0
Total				7,000,000	92,190

Table 5: EEE/WEEE stocked in households (Category 4)

Consumer equipment (WEEE Cat. 4)	No. of items per household	Estimated wt (kg)	Total wt per household (kg)	Total no. of households	Total wt in households (Tonnes)
Alarm Clocks	0.92
Cameras	0.88
DVD Players	1.25
Electric Instruments	0.00
Game Consoles	0.21
MP3 Players	0.21
Projectors	0.00
Radios	1.46	2	2.92		20,417
Stereo	0.17	10	1.67		11,667
TVs (CRT)	1.21	31.6	38.18		267,283
TV (Flat panel)	0.29	15	4.38		30,625
Total				7,000,000	329,992

The POP-PBDEs in stocks in households was then calculated using the formula given in the guidance manual (Table 6).

Table 6: Estimated POP-PBDEs in stocks of EEE in Households

WEEE Category	Product	Amount of stocked EEE (tonnes) in 2009 (a)	Total polymer fraction in EEE (% wt) (b)	Content of c-OctaBDE in total polymer fraction of EEE (kg/tonne) (c)	Total amount of c-OctaBDE (kg) a x b x c
3	CRT monitors	7,910	30%	2.54	6,027.42
4	CRT-TVs	267,283	30%	0.87	69,760.86
Total					75,788.28

Institutional and Corporate Consumers

The stocked EEE in institutional and private companies was obtained by collecting data from selected institutions and companies using the generic questionnaire given in the guidance inventory. The data collected during the survey is shown in Tables 7 and 8.

Table 7: Stocked EEE in Government Institutions (Source: Survey in 19 institutions)

	Total units	Estimated wt per unit (kg)	Total employees in surveyed institutions	Units per employee	Estimated number of employees in government sector	Total units of stocked EEE in government	Total wt of stocked EEE (tonnes) in government
Desk top computers	8181	9.9		0.13		53,645.90	531.09
Laptop computers	1450	3.5		0.02		9,508.20	33.28
Traditional (CRT) PC monitors	1344	14.1		0.02		8,813.11	124.26
Flat screen (LCD) PC monitors	6863	4.7		0.11		45,003.28	211.52
Printers	4090	6.5		0.07		26,819.67	174.33
Mobile phones	6	0.1		0.00		39.34	0.00
CRT TV monitors	89	31.6		0.00		583.61	18.44
Flat screen (LCD) TV monitors	139	15		0.00		911.48	13.67
TOTAL			61,000		400,000		1,106.60

Table 8: Stocked EEE in Private Companies (Survey in 4 Banks & 3 Telecommunication Companies)

Type of EEE	Total units	Estimated wt per unit (kg)	Total employees	Units per employee	Estimated number of employees in private sector	Total units of stocked EEE	Total wt of stocked EEE (tonnes)
Desktop computers	6400.00	9.9		0.89		622,222.22	6,160.00
Laptop computers	833.00	3.5		0.12		80,986.11	283.45
Traditional (CRT) PC monitors	110.00	14.1		0.02		10,694.44	150.79
Flat screen (LCD) PC monitors	6613.00	4.7		0.92		642,930.56	3,021.77
Printers	1122.00	6.5		0.16		109,083.33	709.04
Mobile phones	371.00	0.1		0.05		36,069.44	3.61
CRT TV monitors	110.00	31.6		0.02		10,694.44	337.94
Flat screen (LCD) TV monitors	131.00	15		0.02		12,736.11	191.04
Total			7,200		700,000		10,857.65

The estimated POP-PBDEs in stocks in government and private companies were then calculated according to the formula given in the guidance manual and the results are shown in Tables 9 and 10.

Table 9: Estimated POP-PBDEs in stocks of EEE in Private Companies

WEE Category	Product	Amount of stocked EEE (tonnes) in 2009 (a)	Total polymer fraction in EEE (% wt) (b)	Content of c-OctaBDE in total polymer fraction of EEE (kg/tonne) (c)	Total amount of c-OctaBDE (kg) a x b x c
3	CRT monitors	151	30%	2.54	115.06
4	CRT-TVs	338	30%	0.87	88.22
Total					203.28

Table 10: Estimated POP-PBDEs in stocks of EEE in Government Institutions (Ministries & Other Institutions)

WEEE Category	Product	Amount of stocked EEE (tonnes) in 2009 (a)	Total polymer fraction in EEE (% wt) (b)	Content of c-OctaBDE in total polymer fraction of EEE (kg/tonne) (c)	Total amount of c-OctaBDE (kg) a x b x c
3	CRT monitors	124	30%	2.54	94.49
4	CRT-TVs	18	30%	0.87	4.70
Total					99.19

The total amount of POP-PBDEs in stocked CRT monitors in the country was obtained by summing up the POP-PBDE content at the three levels of consumers (i.e. POP-PBDE content in stocked CRTs monitors in households + POP-PBDE content in stocked CRTs in private companies + POP-PBDE content in stocked CRTs in government institutions) = 76,090.75 kg.

3.3.3 EEE entering the waste stream

The EEE entering the waste stream or WEEE generated was calculated based on the following formula given in the guidance manual using the key data and assumptions shown in Table 11.

WEEE generated per year = M_EEE(j)^stockpiled / ls_EEE(j)

Where

- M_EEE(j)^stockpiled is the amount of EEE (j) stockpiled at the consumer [in tonnes]

- ls_EEE(j) is the average life span of the specific appliance (j) [in years]
(combined time of being used and stored at the consumer)

Table 11: Key data and assumptions used in estimating WEEE generated in 2009

Data Description/Assumption	Value in Consumers
	Households	Private companies	Government institutions
Stocked CRT computer monitors (tonnes)	7,910	151	124
Average life span of CRT computer monitors (yrs)	10	4	6
Therefore WEEE entering the waste stream from CRT computer monitors (tonnes)	791	38	21
Stocked CRT TV monitors (tonnes)	267,283	338	18
Average life span of CRT TV monitors (yrs)	10	4	6
Therefore WEEE entering the waste stream from CRT TV monitors (tonnes)	26,728	85	3

Therefore:

· Total e-waste generated from CRT computers in 2009 = 850 tonnes

Total e-waste generated from CRT TVs in 2009 = 26, 816 tonnes

The total amount of c-OctaBDE in EEE entering the waste stream was then estimated as shown in Table 12.

Table 12: Estimated c-OctaBDE entering the waste stream

WEEE Category	Product	Amount of WEEE generated in year 2009 (tonnes) (a)	Total polymer fraction in EEE (% wt) (b)	Content of c-OctaBDE in total polymer fraction of EEE (kg/tonne) (c)	Total amount of c-OctaBDE (kg) a x b x c
3	CRT monitors	850	30%	2.54	647.70
4	CRT-TVs	26,816	30%	0.87	6998.98
	Total amount of c-OctaBDE in EEE entering the waste stream (WEEE)				7,646.68

Re-calculation from c-OctaBDE content to POP-PBDEs

The POP-PBDEs in the country was recalculated from the total c-OctaBDE using the percentage of distribution of the homologues. Table 18 shows the POP-PBDEs in the country in 2009.

Table 18: POP-PBDEs inventory in 2009

Homologues	Distribution homologues c-OctaBDE	POP-PBDEs in imports for inventory year 2009 (kg)	POP-PBDEs in stocks for inventory year 2009 (kg)	POP-PBDEs entering the waste stream (WEEE) for inventory year 2009 (kg)	POP-PBDEs in recycled polymers for inventory year 2009 (kg)	Total (kg)
Inventoried c-OctaBDE		?c-OctaBDE	?c-OctaBDE	?c-OctaBDE	c-OctaBDE
Inventoried c-OctaBDE
HexaBDE	11%	2.62	8,369.98	841.13	Na	9,213.74
HeptaBDE	43%	10.24	32,719.02	3,288.07	Na	36,017.34
c-OctaBDE**	35%	8.34	26,631.76	2,676.34	Na	29,316.44
NonaBDE**	10%	2.38	7,619.07	764.67	Na	8,376.12
DecaBDE-**	1%	0.24	760.91	76.47	Na	837.61
*Total*		23.82	76,090.75	7,646.68	Na	83,761.25

4. Data Management

Data in the country is managed by designated institutions through reports and databases. Some of the databases and reports are easily accessible on websites while others require official request from the authorities to access them. In this case, the National Focal Point Office for the Stockholm Convention will be responsible for coordinating the management of data related to POP-PBDEs.

5. Reporting

The National Focal Point Office (NFPO) for the Stockholm Convention is responsible for reporting to the Conference of Parties on the measures taken to implement the provisions of the Convention and on the effectiveness of such measures in meeting the objectives of the Convention as per article 15 of the Convention. The NFPO will thus be responsible for reporting to the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention on the POP-PBDEs inventory.

The National Focal Point Office in collaboration with relevant stakeholders will also be responsible for coordinating and/or disseminating information related to POP-PBDEs in the country. Among the dissemination methods used in the country include meetings, seminars/ workshops and the media.