Joint industry statement on Persistent organic pollutants – UV-328
The undersigned Associations, representing the recycling and waste management industry at European level, support the general objective of the Stockholm Convention to eliminate Persistent Organic Pollutants and its EU Implementation under the POPs Regulation. With this paper, we would like to express our joint views regarding the EC draft delegated act amending the Annex I of the POPs Regulation to set the Unintentional Trace Contaminant (UTC) limit for UV-328 at 1 ppm (1 mg/kg; 0,0001% by weight).
UV-328 and Benzotriazoles in recyclates
As UV-328 is a highly effective UV absorber1, this benzotriazole compound can be used in low concentrations, as a light stabilizer for various plastics and other substrates. As for plastics, this substance does not significantly change physical and/or mechanical property of the material, hence as of today there is no way to separate plastics containing UV-328 from plastics not containing UV-328. Furthermore, no technology exists that would be able to remove UV-328 from a polymer matrix in an environmentally friendly or cost-effective manner.
Within its membership, PRE carried out an initiative for screening substances of concern in recyclate, where samples of recyclate were collected, across different plastics streams and industries. For this screening, extruded plaques, made out of recycled flakes or pellets, were employed (please refer to Annex I of this document for further explanation). This initiative was launched by PRE also with the aim of establishing a ‘sample bank’ of samples that are representative of European Recyclate. For such measurement campaign, various types of analysis were performed, spanning from XRF, GCMS and LCMS SVHC screening, to specific LCMS/MS techniques for target substances. This resulted in a well characterized sample library of 100+ samples of material, representative of common varieties of plastics recyclate.
A selection from this sample bank was used for a broad screening of benzotriazoles. Samples were selected to ensure the different recycling subsectors are included, within an appropriate range of donating companies, and of different sources. Measurements were carried out by a renowned laboratory in Belgium that also does compliance testing for national authorities. A wide range of benzotriazole was included in the testing programme, such as UV-320, UV-327, UV-328, and others.
The results of the broad spectrum benzotriazole screening can be seen in Table 1. None of the samples tested showed any benzotriazole above the reporting limit of 0.01%.
Table 1. Results of the PRE Measurement Campaign into a broad spectrum Benzotriazoles analysis of various recyclate samples.
The laboratory indicated that the testing method available and employed has a determination limit of maximum 0.005% and a reporting limit of 0.01%, thus making it unfeasible for them to match the proposed UTC limit of 0,0001%. It should be noted that the laboratory in question, while in the industry’s view is excellent, it has implemented their own in-house method based on some specifications from the OEKO-TEX®2 certification scheme. This is because there is no EN or ISO standard established for which interlaboratory testing has been conducted and independently verified. Based on experience with other substances incorporated in polymer matrixes, the industry strongly believes that such work could reveal quite large variations between different laboratories. This is one of the reasons for a higher “reporting limit” compared to the “determination limit”3.
The joint Association’s party to this statement consider it to be essential to have an interlaboratory comparison being done on analysis methods before a UTC limit is adopted. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has successfully undertaken such work previously for the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in the context of the review by the EC of the PAH restriction. However, we do understand and share the wish to prevent virgin use of POP substances.
Joint industry proposal on UTC limit of UV-328
We would like to remind the European Commission that similar to Dechlorane Plus, no impact assessment is available that evaluates the setting of limit values below 0.1%. In this case, there was not even an ECHA Restriction Process to inform the discussion. The closest equivalent documentation in the Stockholm Convention would be the Risk Management Evaluation (UNEP/POPS/POPRC.18/11/Add.24), which does not contain text on where an UTC level should be set.
In our previous feedback submitted to the 29th POP CA meeting,5 the industry indicated 0.1% as preferred limit in mixtures and articles, including a review clause of 1 – 2 years, necessary for to generate data on the background levels in recyclate. Since writing that paper, it has been possible to generate such information.
Considering this and the results collected in the PRE substance screening exercise for benzotriazoles, we are reasonably confident that a limit of 0.01% would prevent intentional use and that recyclate would not contain UV-328 at a level exceeding this. Therefore:
We strongly advocate that the UTC for UV-328 be set at a level of 0.01%.
Finally, we would like to stress further that there is an urgent need for a European scientific and verifiable testing methodology agreed for all substances, that can be used on an industrial continuous basis, so that the industry can embrace the challenges ahead with certainty.
1 A UV absorber is a molecule that absorbs UV radiation and converts this to molecular vibration (heat) and sometimes a photon with a higher wavelength/lower energy.
2 OEKO-TEX® is a certification scheme for the textile industry. It is not an official EN or ISO standard, typically meaning that between laboratory validation work has not been done.
3 (For a more extensive deliberation on this subject, see for example, the waste and recycling coalition paper on Dechlorane Plus).
4 Available the Stockholm Convention Website
5 See paper submitted to CIRCABC for the 29th POP CA meeting.
For and on behalf of the following industry Associations:
FEAD is the European Waste Management Association, representing the private waste and resource management industry across Europe, including 19 national waste management federations and 3,000 waste management companies. Private waste management companies operate in 60% of municipal waste markets in Europe and in 75% of industrial and commercial waste. This means more than 320,000 local jobs, fueling €5 billion of investments into the economy every year.
EERA is the voice of WEEE recycling in Europe being the professional association for the e-waste recycling and reprocessing industry. Our mission is to achieve a level playing field for fair competition in the WEEE value chain, harmonisation of regulations, effective and efficient recycling and reprocessing with prevention of pollution, minimization of emissions and a high quality of secondary raw materials and components.
EuRIC is an umbrella organisation for European Recycling Industries. Through its Members, EuRIC represents companies involved in the collection, processing, recycling, transport and trade of a variety of recyclables (metals, paper, plastics, glass and beyond) across Europe. By servicing its Members, EuRIC contributes to promote recycling, which is first and foremost a business activity driven by an ecosystem of thousands of Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) and fewer but equally important larger companies. All of them are local and global actors.
Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) is an organisation representing the voice of the European plastics recyclers who reprocess plastic waste into high quality material destined for production of new articles. Recyclers are important facilitators of the circularity of plastics and the transition towards the circular economy. Plastics recycling in Europe is a rapidly growing sector representing over €8.7 billion in turnover, 11.3 million tonnes of installed recycling capacity, more than 730 recycling facilities, and over30.000 employees.