The melting and powdering processes for treating plastic waste
at low temperature could generate harmful and malodorous gas
emissions which have potential adverse health impacts not only
for employees but also for nearby residents. The odor concentrations
of the emissions from the PVC plastic waste recycling plants
were higher than those from the PE/PP plastic recycling plants, and
multiple organochlorinated compounds were measurable in the
ambient air emitted from the PVC plastic waste recycling plant.
Further, inside the PE/PP plastic waste recycling plant, the concentrations
of PAHs could be much higher than those at the boundaries
and acrolein in one sample exceeded the NIOSH short-term
exposure level limit. Further researches on health risk assessments
for this occupation should be considered. All of the plastic waste
recycling plants in this study only used filter to treat the melting
fumes, and this could not efficiently eliminate the gaseous compounds
and malodor. More efforts to exhaust air pollution control
and the use of the personal respiratory protective equipment by
employees are strongly recommended in these industries.