Environmental evaluation on rigid polyurethane foam disposal from refrigerator waste in Thailand

Abstract

© 2019, Thai Society of Higher Eduation Institutes on Environment. All rights reserved. Rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) is used as thermal insulation, especially in a refrigerator. After the refrigerator was discarded, it was dismantled by the dismantler. Most of the time, RPUF waste was found illegally disposed or openly burned, causing environmental problems and human health issues, owing to reckless management. Therefore, RPUF waste is one of the most concerning waste disposal, leading to this study. This study investigates on RPUF waste started from the beginning of the cycle, which was the chemical production, to the end of the cycle, followed by the dismantling site. The result revealed that the blowing agent, for example, HCFC-141b, HFCs, and cyclopentane, was added in a foam production process for refrigerator, an amine group was added as a catalyst and a flame retardant was not added in the RPUF used in the refrigerator. The study was collected survey from the dismantling sites in 5 regions of Thailand (19 dismantling sites). These indicated that the disposal options of the RPUF wastes were landfill (47.83%), open burning (21.74%), sanitary landfill (13.04%) incineration (13.04%) and refuse-derived fuel or RDF (4.35%), respectively. Landfill presents the main disposal method for RPUF waste in Thailand. For environmental aspect, in 2018-2031, the landfill disposal will affect the environment in terms of global warming 22,175.36-39,290.65 kg CO2 eq/yr, ozone depletion 0.015-0.027 kg CFC11 eq/yr and terrestrial ecotoxicity 52,098.17-92,308.34 kg 1,4-DCB/yr.