Recycled WEEE plastics in China: Generation trend and environmental impacts

Abstract

Sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) offers a significant opportunity for resource recovery. However, the generation of plastics in WEEEs and the environmental impacts related to subsequent recycling have not been well addressed. This study estimates the generation volumes of plastics that are recycled from five typical kinds of WEEEs in China and analyzes the environmental performance of WEEE plastics recycling using life cycle assessment (LCA). The results show that recycled plastics from WEEEs increased from 231.6 kt in 2010 to 565.8 kt in 2018, by an average rate of 11.8% per year, with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) being the three main components. In 2018, the estimated total electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by Chinese WEEE plastics recycling reached 238.6 million kWh and 712.1 kt CO2 eq, primarily due to energy consumption, transportation and WEEE disassembling processes. Based on the results, we find that recycled plastics from WEEEs demonstrate better performance on most environmental aspects except for ozone depletion as compared to the production of virgin plastics. The ongoing ozone-depleting emissions imply an urgent need for additional actions to minimize potential refrigerant leakage in WEEE plastics recycling. This study provides essential information about the existing WEEE plastics recycling practices in China and offers valuable implications to enhance the recycling of plastic materials from WEEEs and achieve sustainable WEEE management.