Waste management of electrical and electronic equipment

• Author: Clemm, Christan; Löw, Clara; Baron, Yifaat; Moch, Katja; Möller, Martin; Köhler, Andreas R; Gensch, Carl-Otto; Deubzer, Otmar
• Pages: 26-26

RoHS Annex II Dossier, final

Nickel sulphate and nickel sulfamate

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5. WASTE MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

As discussed above (see section 2), nickel sulphate and nickel sulfamate are used in plating

technologies based on electrodeposition und electroless deposition for a broad range of electrical

and electronic components, including ABS plastic mouldings. Nickel sulphate and nickel sulfamate

are solely used as process chemicals which are converted into nickel metal during the electrolytic

surface processes. Thus, the available data indicates that nickel sulphate and nickel sulfamate are

not found in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), not even as an impurity.

Due to the fact that these nickel salts are not present in the final EEE product, an evaluation on

their impact on waste treatment processes is not further developed.

The evaluation of the waste stream processes would rather have to be conducted for the

substance group "nickel and its compounds". Nickel is generally present in many forms in EEE

waste (see EU RAR 2008), mostly as nickel compounds – e.g. nickel oxide or nickel hydroxide.

Nickel metal and Ni2+ can be expected to be present in almost all EEE and thus in all WEEE

categories. Nickel plating of plastics housings can be expected to be more common in consumer

products which often have shorter lifetimes and do not need to be as robust as equipment with

metal housings.

Already the Swedish Chemicals Agency KEMI concluded in it “Assessment of the risk reduction

potential of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment on the EU market” in

201541 that “nickel compounds are hazardous to human and environment and are found to a great

extent in EEE products, it is of interest to analyse them more extensively in order to make an

assessment of their risks in EEE products.”

This evaluation is however beyond the scope of this review.

The Nickel Institute (2019) claims in this regard that “it should be noted, however, that no risks

were identified for shredding processes in the REACH chemical safety assessment of the waste

life-cycle stage (documented in the joint Chemical Safety Report), which is based on the Best

Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document (BREF) for Waste Treatment (JRC, 2018).

Moreover, it should be acknowledged that nickel metal and inorganic nickel compounds have

different hazard classifications.”

The Joint Chemical Safety Report is not publicly available but submitted to the ECHA; results are

extracted and made available in the ECHA Registered Substance database.42 Thus, the claim of

Nickel Institute cannot be scrutinised here. However, the consideration that nickel-plated plastics

end up in waste stream processes where processing and shredding of plastic waste generates

dust from decomposing and shredding of EEE plastic supports the conclusion as taken by KEMI

(2015). No further information on nickel plated plastics in EEE especially on amounts have been

provided by stakeholders. These considerations form the basis for the recommendation to assess

the substance groups nickel and its compounds in the future.

41 Swedish Chemicals Agency KEMI (2015): Assessment of the risk reduction potential of hazardous substances in

electrical and electronic equipment on the EU market; https://www.kemi.se/global/pm/2015/pm-7-15.pdf, last viewed

19.04.2018

42 E.g. for nickel at: https://echa.europa.eu/de/registration-dossier/-/registered-dossier/15544/1; see there under

toxicological information.