Shredder plants for the treatment of end-of-life vehicles and electronic and electrical equipment have
been considered potential sources of polyhalogenated compounds (LUA 1997, UNEP 2006). However,
the fate and behavior of polyhalogenated organic compounds during the processes of shredding wastes
are not well known despite the fact that these processes have been conducted in a wide variety of
applications for material recycling and waste volume reduction. In this study, the behavior of
polychlorinated and polybrominated compounds, i.e., brominated flame retardants (BFRs),
polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and
polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in flue gas samples were investigated
together with a dioxin-like activity measured by the DR-CALUX (Dioxin-Responsive
Chemical-Activated LUciferase gene eXpression assay) in a full-scale shredder plant for the treatment
of municipal bulky waste. We compared the results with with those of a previous pilot-scale plant
study carried out on three different types of waste materials (Takigami et al. 2005). The controllability
of the compounds during the currently adopted flue gas treatment was evaluated.