Proposition of UTC limit value for Polychlorinated Biphenyls under the Annex I of POP Regulation
FEAD, the European Waste Management Association, welcomes the proposal of the European Commission to propose an unintentional trace contaminant (UTC) limit value for Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) under the Annex I of the POP Regulation. However, the waste management industry questions the availability of standardised analytical methods for testing for the presence of all PCBs in waste matrix, and requests for clarification regarding the application of the derogation for organic pigments and organic dyes to secondary raw materials.
PCBs in the waste management sector
PCBs are a group of synthetic organic chemicals that were once widely used in industrial applications, particularly in electrical transformers, capacitors and hydraulic systems, due to their insulating and heat-resistant properties. However, their persistence in the environment, bioaccumulation in wildlife and serious health risks – including endocrine disruption and carcinogenicity – have led to their classification as hazardous pollutants. The regulation of PCBs in the European Union (EU) has been primarily governed by Directive 96/59/EC on the disposal of PCBs and PCTs since 1996, which requires the identification, decontamination and disposal of equipment containing PCBs. This was reinforced in 2019 by the POPs Regulation, which sets strict deadlines for the elimination of PCB-containing dielectric equipment by 2025.
The presence of PCBs used to be a common problem for the oil collection and recycling industry. Waste oil carriers collect oil from a variety of installations and transport it to collection centres before it can be recycled in a dedicated facility. The presence of PCBs above 50ppm is strictly monitored at the collection point in accordance with Annex IV of the POPs Regulation and the Waste Treatment Directive. If the collected oil happens to contain PCBs, special treatment is required, a PCB dechlorination process, which is an effective method of destroying PCBs in oil. The quality of the recycled oil is carefully monitored to ensure that it complies with current product legislation.
As for PCBs in WEEE, thanks to the long history of restrictions on PCBs in the EU market, they are very rare: they can be found in old capacitors, which are strictly regulated and must be removed for WEEE streams and treated accordingly to remove traces and avoid contamination of PCBs within the WEEE recycling and treatment process. They do not normally pose a significant problem for WEEE recyclers as they are easily identified, and the industry has demonstrated strict compliance with the current limit for PCBs in waste set out in Annex IV of the POPs Regulation.
Finally, as underlined by the Commission in its draft proposal, PCBs can be unintentionally generated in the production process of organic pigments such as diarylide (yellow) and phthalocyanine (green)[1], which are very common pigments in all kinds of industries, including the plastics industry. Therefore, PCBs can be found at trace levels in all coloured plastic waste streams due to unintentional contamination by the addition of organic pigments in the plastics manufacturing process and in the subsequent secondary raw materials resulting from the recycling of these waste streams.
Lack of standardised analytical method for PCBs
While FEAD understands the need to effectively address the issue of PCBs as contaminants in substances, mixtures and articles, and to set stringent UTC limit values accordingly, we would like to highlight the lack of effective analytical methods to monitor PCBs at such low levels in different matrixes.
For example, the standardised method for the determination of PCBs in oils is ASTM D 4059, with a detection limit of maximum of 1 ppm, above the proposed general UTC limit of 0.2 ppm. Additionally, while FEAD appreciates that the Commission refers in its draft to the standard ISO 787-28:2019, that specifies a method for determining the total content of PCBs (checking for all 209 possible congeners) in pigment materials, we would like to underline that the lower quantitation limit of this method is 1 ppm per congener and that results below 1 ppm are considered to be qualitative only. These two examples reflect the general approach to PCBs quantification, where very low levels, typically below 1 ppm, are out of reach. This is above the proposed general UTC limit of 0.2 ppm for a sum of PCBs in mixtures and articles.
It should also be noted that the most hazardous PCBs, in particular the dioxin-like PCBs, are regulated through specific limit values under Annex IV of the POPs Regulation (using toxic equivalency factors), which could be as low as 0.05 ppm for PCB 126 in waste. Therefore, laboratories have developed reliable in-house high-precision measurement methods for this targeted list of dioxin-like PCBs, which are used to verify the compliance of recycled materials with POP Annex IV. Unfortunately, such precise analytical methods are only available for a limited number of PCBs and cannot be applied to the 209 possible congeners that make up the chemical group of PCBs.
In addition, one of the methods commonly used to measure the presence of PCBs in recycled plastics is based on the Ballschmiter congener analysis method, which measures a subset of PCBs (PCB 28, 52, 101, 138, 153 and 180, with PCB 118 sometimes included for dioxin-like properties) and is based on the DIN ISO 10382:2003 standard. Although this method is rather quick and inexpensive, it relies on multiplying the measured value of selected PCBs by five to estimate the total PCBs concentration, a practice based on a German LAGA method[2] that often leads to overestimates. Although the measurement of selected congeners can be very precise, with lower detection limits ranging from 0.1 ppm to 0.4 ppm according to the standard, the subsequent approximation to the total PCBs concentration tends to make this method unreliable for the proposed general UTC limit of 0.2 ppm for the sum of PCBs. In addition, if none of the selected congeners are present in a sample, PCBs contamination may go undetected. Other in-house analytical methods used on an industrial scale for PCBs in recycled plastics also tend to have a limit of quantification higher than the proposed 0.2 ppm UTC limit, generally around 10 ppm in recycled plastics.
Finally, it is important to note that very precise analytical methods can be carried out in a laboratory environment but cannot be used on a continuous industrial scale, resulting in operational disruption and additional economic costs each time compliance needs to be demonstrated. For example, the ISO 787-28:2019 method proposed by the Commission, which is based on full analysis of all 209 congeners, is a time-consuming method with an estimated cost of more than €1,000 per analysis and is therefore not suitable for day-to-day analysis. In addition, most laboratories working with the waste management industry are not currently certified for the ISO 787-28:2019 method.
Unintentional presence of PCBs in waste due to organic pigments
FEAD appreciates the proposal of the Commission to take into consideration the unintentional PCBs contamination due to the use of organic pigments in the manufacturing process, by introducing a specific derogation for mixtures and articles containing organic pigments or organic dyes, with a threshold of 10 ppm three years after entry into force of the regulation.
Organic pigments are extremely common as additives in plastic production, and extensive studies have shown that some plastics packaging made of virgin plastics could contain up to 2.3 ppm total PCBs content, attributed to the use of organic pigments in the colouring process of the plastic material[3]. The end of life of these products containing organic pigments or organic dyes, potentially contaminated with PCBs, raises important question regarding the contamination of secondary raw materials: given the widespread presence of organic pigments in products, recycled materials may inevitably contain trace amounts of PCBs, making strict compliance with the proposed general UTC limit of 0.2 ppm highly challenging for recyclers.
The waste management and recycling industry requires legal clarification that this derogation for organic pigments and organic dyes also applies to secondary raw materials to ensure that recyclers are not unfairly penalised for unintentional contamination from virgin production. In addition, the UTC limits for mixtures and articles containing organic pigments and dyes foreseen in the derogation are higher than the lower limits of quantification of the existing analytical methods mentioned above and could therefore be achieved by the recycling sector.
Secondary raw materials under the derogation for organic pigments and dyes
In view of these challenges, FEAD calls for legal certainty to ensure that the recycling industry can continue to operate effectively while complying with environmental legislation. As there is a general lack of standardised analytical methods for PCBs capable of detecting quantities at the proposed general UTC limit of 0.2 ppm, and as the presence of PCBs in secondary raw materials could be attributed to the use of organic pigments or organic dyes at the production stage, it is essential that the derogation for organic pigments and dyes also applies to recycled materials. Without this alignment, recyclers could face a disproportionate regulatory burden, undermining efforts to promote circularity and high-quality recycling.
In order to maintain a fair and practical regulatory framework, FEAD urges the Commission to explicitly clarify that recycled materials containing traces of PCBs are covered by the organic pigments and dyes derogation, thus ensuring a balanced approach that protects both public health and the viability of the recycling sector.
[1] Tyler J. Hannah, David Megson, Courtney D. Sandau, A review of the mechanisms of by-product PCB formation in pigments, dyes and paints, Science of The Total Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158529
[2] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/publikation/long/3007.pdf
[3] Department of Ecology, State of Washington, Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Consumer Products, Page 17 https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/publications/documents/1604014.pdf
FEAD is the European Waste Management Association, representing the private waste and resource management industry across Europe, including 20 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, fuelling €5 billion of investments into the economy every year.