E-waste In China Research Articles

Monitoring the Resources and Environmental Impacts from the Precise Disassembly of E-Waste in China.

Due to the dispersed distribution of e-waste and crude disassembly in traditional recycling, valuable metals are not traceable during their life cycle. Meanwhile, incomplete separation between metals and nonmetals reduces the economic value of disassembled parts, which leads to higher environmental costs for metal refining. Therefore, this study proposes a precise disassembly of e-waste to finely classify and recover metals in an environmentally friendly way. First, the macroscopic material flow of e-waste in China (source, flow, scrap, and recycling gap) was measured based on data collected by the government and 109 formal recycling enterprises. The sustainable recycling balance time points for e-waste recycling and scrap volumes were forecast by introducing an additional recycling efficiency. By 2030, the total scrap volume of e-waste is predicted to reach 133.06 million units. For precise disassembly, the main metals and their percentages from these typical e-wastes were measured based on material flow analysis combined with experimental methods. After precise disassembly, the proportion of reusable metals increases significantly. The CO2 emission of precise disassembly with the smelting process was the lowest compared with crude disassembly with smelting and ore metallurgy. The greenhouse gas for secondary metals Fe, Cu, and Al was 830.32, 1151.62, and 716.6 kg CO2/t metal, respectively. The precise disassembly of e-waste is meaningful for building a future resource sustainable society and for carbon emission reduction.

Volatile organic compounds and metals/metalloids exposure in children after e-waste control: Implications for priority control pollutants and exposure mitigation measures

The decade-long effort to control e-waste in China has made significant progress from haphazard disposal to organized recycling, but environmental research suggests that exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and metals/metalloids (MeTs) still poses plausible health risks. To investigate the exposure risk faced by children and identify corresponding priority control chemicals, we evaluated the carcinogenic risk (CR), non-CR, and oxidative DNA damage risks of VOCs and MeTs exposure in 673 children from an e-waste recycling area (ER) by measuring urinary exposure biomarker levels. The ER children were generally exposed to high levels of VOCs and MeTs. We observed distinctive VOCs exposure profiles in ER children. In particular, the 1,2-dichloroethane/ethylbenzene ratio and 1,2-dichloroethane were promising diagnostic indexes for identifying e-waste pollution due to their high accuracy (91.4%) in predicting e-waste exposure. Exposure to acrolein, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, 1,2-dichloroethane, acrylamide, acrylonitrile, arsenic, vanadium, copper, and lead posed considerable CR or/and non-CR and oxidative DNA damage risks to children, while changing personal lifestyles, especially enhancing daily physical exercise, may facilitate mitigating these chemical exposure risks. These findings highlight that the exposure risk of some VOCs and MeTs is still non-negligible in regulated ER, and these hazardous chemicals should be controlled as priorities.

Insight into quantities, flows, and recycling technology of E-waste in China for resource sustainable society

The difficulty of tracking the metabolism of e-waste throughout its life cycle caused by scattered distribution has long constrained the development of the recycling industry and further policy making. In this study, the monitoring of Chinese e-waste, including sources, flows, scrap, and recycling potentials of electronic products, was measured and predicted based on data from both the government and 109 formal e-waste recycling enterprises. From 2009 to 2030, the inventory of electronic products is expected to increase due to overcapacity and near saturation of household possession. Meanwhile, the total amount of e-waste scrapping is predicted to increase from 1.77 million tons to 18.86 million tons, and the amount of generated e-waste will also increase, reaching 240 million tons by 2030. Currently, e-waste recycling is gradually becoming the official waste disposal approach. However, this newly emerged industry has numerous problems, such as lower recycling efficiency and scale, lack of advanced technologies, and corresponding laws and regulations. Hence, the data collected and analyzed in this study shed light on the e-waste market size in China. Meanwhile, to establish an ideal resource-sustainable society, suggestions regarding the optimization of the e-waste recycling industry through legal, reasonable, and efficient methods are put forward from our point of view.

Risk management of e-waste disposal in China: A life cycle perspective

In the wave of global e-waste migration, the problem of e-waste management in developing countries and underdeveloped areas has become the focus of academic attention. In the developing countries represented by China, there are still a large number of electronic waste flowing into the extensive manual dismantling workshops. These informal recycling and disposal have a huge adverse impact on the environment of the surrounding areas, and there are huge health and ecological risks. How to effectively deal with the risks generated in the process of e-waste disposal is of great significance to global e-waste management. At present, risk assessment and management have not been included in China's existing e-waste management system. This article analyzes the health, ecological, and regional risks of e-waste in the four links of recycling, dismantling, resource utilization, and final disposal. At the same time, a list of e-waste risk assessment processes is formulated, and a risk management framework for e-waste in China is proposed. It enriches the theoretical and empirical research on e-waste management and provides Chinese practices for the future construction of an industrial 4.0 sustainable ecosystem.

Changes in human hair levels of organic contaminants reflecting China's regulations on electronic waste recycling

To assess the impacts of regulations and laws enhancing the management of e-waste in China, hair samples of local residents and dismantling workers in a former e-waste area in 2016 and 2019, five and eight years after the implementation of legislation and regulations in this area since 2011, respectively. The temporal changes in levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) in the hair samples were investigated. Besides, the levels of these organic contaminants in hair samples collected from the same area in 2009, 2011, and 2015 reported in previous studies were used as comparison. The highest median levels of Σ9PCBs (719 ng/g), Σ3Penta-BDEs (16.1 ng/g), and Σ3Octa-BDEs (8.46 ng/g) in hair were found in 2011, with a significant decrease trend was observed from 2011 to 2019 (p < 0.05). As for Deca-BDE, the levels reached the maximum in 2015 (133 ng/g), following by a significant decrease to 2016 (7.46 ng/g) and 2019 (2.61 ng/g) (p < 0.05). The median levels of Σ8OPFRs, also decreased significantly (p < 0.05) from 2015 (357 ng/g) to 2016 (264 ng/g) and 2019 (112 ng/g). Moreover, a significantly increasing trend was observed for the ratios of triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) and tris(2-chloropropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), two predominant OPFRs, to Deca-BDE from 2015 to 2019 (p < 0.01), suggesting a shift of “legacy” to “emerging” contaminants released from e-waste recycling in this area. The temporal changes in hair levels of typical organic contaminants in residents and dismantling workers indicated the effectiveness of the regulations on informal e-waste recycling activities and solid waste in China.

Reducing e-waste in China's mobile electronics industry: the application of the innovative circular business models

PurposeThe objectives of this research are to (1) fill the evidence gap of circular business activities and (2) enrich the knowledge base about the drivers of and barriers to circular economy business model (CEBM) that supports e-waste reduction in China’s mobile electronics industry. To answer the overarching research question of whether there are CEBMs emerging to address e-waste in China’ mobile electronics industry, we in this paper divided it into three sub-questions: (1) What CEBMs can support e-waste reduction? (2) Is there evidence for their implementation in China? and (3) What are the drivers of and barriers to these business model innovations?Design/methodology/approachWe started with setting the scene on the importance of better e-waste management and the scale of e-waste problem in China. Building on the oft-quoted ReSOLVE framework, developed by EMF (2015) and consolidated in Lewandowski (2016), we have refined from it 11 CEBMs to suit the context of e-waste reduction. These 11 models include regenerate, life cycle extension, take-back services, product sharing systems, optimise resource value, produce on demand, circular supplies, resource recovery, industrial symbiosis, product-as-a-service and transformative innovation. We have mapped these refined models against the evidence of circular business practices identified in the corporate sustainability reports of eight out of top 12 mobile electronics manufacturers in China.FindingsOur research findings show that six out of these 11 CEBMs are de facto practised in many of these companies. They include life cycle extension, collection services, optimise resource value, circular supplies, resource recovery and industrial symbiosis, although circular economy is still early-stage endeavours in the industry. As confirmed in our expert and company interviews, CEBM stems largely from profit and policy drivers. The key to building successful CEBMs to eliminate e-waste is, indeed, multi-stakeholder collaboration across the mobile electronics industry, which involves effective collection, reuse and recycling systems.Originality/valueThe lessons learnt can promote peer learning among EEE manufacturers and inform policymakers of effective strategies to create an enabling environment in which circular economy models can thrive.

System dynamics modelling of mixed recycling mode based on contract: a case study of online and offline recycling of E-waste in China

ABSTRACT As the pace of global sustainable economic development accelerates, increasing attention has been brought to the reutilization of waste electronic resources (E-waste). As the leading manufacturer and consumer of electronic products, China has now become the largest producer of E-waste around the world. Considering the current state of recycling mode in China, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) took the lead in implementing a blended operation model of manufacturer-led recycling model (offline recycling, OffR) and retailer-led recycling model (online recycling, OnR). In order for the improvement of recycling efficiency for Huawei and other telecommunication companies, this paper constructs a closed-loop network model of mixed recycling (MR) between manufacturers and retailers based on contract, where manufacturers and retailers jointly recycle E-waste for the provision of E-waste to manufacturers for remanufacturing. In this paper, the MR model is compared against the OffR model and OnR model to evaluate the recycling allocation mechanism run by both manufacturer and retailer and then a contract-based, closed-loop network model of mixed recycling between manufacturers and retailers is developed on the basis of obtaining the optimal MR model. By means of simulation analysis, the optimal recycling allocation ratio between manufacturer and retailer is determined. The results obtained from this study are expected to help manufacturers and retailers with effective negotiation and cooperation, so as to improve the efficiency of E-waste recycling while promoting sustainable development and reducing the economic losses caused by price competition to the minimum. This research contributes to not only the waste management studies but also the recycling of E-waste in China and other countries.

Uncovering material flow analysis of waste cathode ray tubes television in China.

Cathode ray tube televisions (TVs) contributes significantly to the rapidly increasing waste stream of cathode ray tubes in the e-waste. This study mainly focused on the material flow of waste cathode ray tube TVs in China. Currently, waste cathode ray tubes constitute a major part of the total generation of e-waste in China. The study aimed to emphasise the flow of materials in the generated waste cathode ray tube TVs by using stock-based material flow analysis model. The modelling was conducted to investigate the disposable number of obsolete devices, in-use stock, and end-of-life of cathode ray tube TVs. SubSTance flow ANalysis (STAN) software was used to perform the material flow analysis modelling and graphical model of the waste cathode ray tube TVs. The results show that in a period of 10 years, overall about 3241.37 kt of cathode ray tube TVs were net produced in China, containing 183.6 kt of glass, 1718.2 kt of plastic, 243 kt of steel/iron, 153.5 kt of lead, 76.6 kt of copper, 7.8 kt of aluminium, and 1.6 kt of antimony. The results revealed that almost 125 kt of end-of-life cathode ray tube TVs containing about 68 kt of glass, 40 kt of plastic, 9 kt of steel/iron, 6 kt of lead, 3 kt of copper, 0.3 kt of aluminium, and 0.07 kt of antimony were dumped in the period of 10 years. Therefore, the management of waste cathode ray tube TVs required better infrastructure for recycling and better regulation to achieve better results in the high recovery of valuable resources.

Digital afterlife: (Eco)civilizational politics of the site and the sight of e-waste in China

Digital afterlife: (Eco)civilizational politics of the site and the sight of e-waste in China

A System Dynamics Model to Evaluate Effects of Retailer-Led Recycling Based on Dual Chains Competition: A Case of e-Waste in China

China, as the largest electronic waste producer in the world, is facing a critical challenge to manage its negative impacts on the environment. Hence, e-waste management is crucial for sustainable Chinese economic development. In this paper, a system dynamics model is adopted to identify the effects of retailer-led recycling based on closed-loop dual chains competition. The influence of contracts made by manufacturers on different retail modes is also discussed. From the aspects of total revenue (TR), market share (MS) and market competitiveness (MC), this paper analyzes the impact of e-waste recycling coefficient (ERC) on supply chain and analyzes the equilibrium solution of total supply chain return. The research results show that the contract incentive mechanism can improve the retailer’s recycling enthusiasm, and the effect on the retail mode of executive shop is more obvious. When the ERC is adjusted to 44.3%, the TR of supply chain is optimal, and the MS and MC occupy an obvious advantage.

Key factors of eddy current separation for recovering aluminum from crushed e-waste

Recovery of e-waste in China had caused serious pollutions. Eddy current separation is an environment-friendly technology of separating nonferrous metallic particles from crushed e-waste. However, due to complex particle characters, separation efficiency of traditional eddy current separator was low. In production, controllable operation factors of eddy current separation are feeding speed, (ωR−v), and Sp. There is little special information about influencing mechanism and critical parameters of these factors in eddy current separation. This paper provided the special information of these key factors in eddy current separation of recovering aluminum particles from crushed waste refrigerator cabinets. Detachment angles increased as the increase of (ωR−v). Separation efficiency increased with the growing of detachment angles. Aluminum particles were completely separated from plastic particles in critical parameters of feeding speed 0.5m/s and detachment angles greater than 6.61deg. Sp/Sm of aluminum particles in crushed waste refrigerators ranged from 0.08 to 0.51. Separation efficiency increased as the increase of Sp/Sm. This enlightened us to develop new separator to separate smaller nonferrous metallic particles in e-waste recovery. High feeding speed destroyed separation efficiency. However, greater Sp of aluminum particles brought positive impact on separation efficiency. Greater Sp could increase critical feeding speed to offer greater throughput of eddy current separation. This paper will guide eddy current separation in production of recovering nonferrous metals from crushed e-waste.

Time trends of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in East China Seas: Response to the booming of PBDE pollution industry in China

The East China Seas (ECSs) are the receptors of the land-based persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) mainly from China through atmospheric deposition driven by the East Asian winter monsoon and fluvial discharge (e.g., Yangtze River and Yellow River), making the offshore sediments to be a good proxy to reconstruct history of those pollutants in China. In this work, four well-placed sediment cores were extracted from the mud areas in the ECSs, and the 210Pb-dated cores were analyzed to yield historical concentration profiles of PBDEs in the area. The results showed that there was a persistent increase from 1970s and almost no clear sign in the decline of PBDEs until recently in China. More importantly, there was a faster increase of PBDEs from 1990s in China; while this period was just shown as gradually leveling off or even declining trends in developed countries. The persistently increasing trend of PBDEs in China since 1990s could be largely due to the booming of the manufacturing industry and unexpectedly transfer of PBDE pollution from developed countries to China. Besides, the relative high concentrations and fluxes of PBDEs in the core from coastal ECS located near a well-known electrical/electronic waste (e-waste) recycling area suggests an important contribution of PBDE emissions from recycling centers of e-waste in China. Although efforts in environmental monitoring of PBDE contamination have been substantially increased over the last decade, China is still lagging behind in terms of nationwide regulation of PBDE usage and treatment of disposal PBDE-containing products.

Systematic characterization of generation and management of e-waste in China.

Over the last decade, there has been much effort to promote the management of e-waste in China. Policies have been affected to prohibit imports and to control pollution. Research has been conducted in laboratories and on large-scale industrial operations. A subsidy system to support sound e-waste recycling has been put in place. However, the handling of e-waste is still a concern in China and the issue remains unresolved. There has been relatively little work to follow up this issue or to interpret continuing problems from the perspective of sustainable development. This paper first provides a brief overview of conventional and emerging environmental pollution in Chinese "famous" e-waste dismantling areas, including Guiyu in Guangdong and Wenling in Zhejiang. Environmentalists have repeatedly proven that these areas are significantly polluted. Importing and backyard recycling are decreasing but are ongoing. Most importantly, no work is being done to treat or remediate the contaminated environmental media. The situation is exacerbated by the rising tide of e-waste generated by domestic update of various electronics. This study, therefore, employs a Sales Obsolescence Model approach to predict the generation of e-waste. When accounting for weight, approximately 8 million tons of e-waste will be generated domestically in 2015, of which around 50% is ferrous metals, followed by miscellaneous plastic (30%), copper metal and cables (8%), aluminum (5%), and others (7%). Of this, 3.6% will come from scrap PCBs and 0.2% from lead CRT glass. While more and more end-of-life electronics have been collected and treated by formal or licensed recyclers in China in terms of our analysis, many of them only have dismantling and separation activities. Hazardous e-wastes, including those from PCBs, CRT glass, and brominated flame retardant (BFR) plastics, have become problematic and probably flow to small or backyard recyclers without environmentally sound management. Traditional technologies are still being used to recover precious metals--such as cyanide method of gold hydrometallurgy--from e-waste. While recovery rates of precious metals from e-waste are above 50%, it has encountered some challenges from environmental considerations. Worse, many critical metals contained in e-waste are lost because the recovery rates are less than 1%. On the other hand, this implies that there is opportunity to develop the urban mine of the critical metals from e-waste.

Measuring the generation and management status of waste office equipment in China: a case study of waste printers

E-waste has become one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, and has attracted worldwide attention. However, very little research on e-waste has focused on waste office equipment. In this study, we chose waste printers as the typical waste office equipment, to investigate the generation and management status of this type of e-waste in China. Using the Stanford and Gompertz Curve models, we estimated the generated volume of waste printers to be 39.15 million units in 2014; this volume can be expected to increase to 57.15 million units in 2025. Twenty private enterprises and public institutions, 4 small retailers, 7 second-hand recyclers, 3 producers, 4 informal dismantling points, and 4 formal recycling enterprises were investigated, to understand the life-cycle flow of waste printers, from usage into collection channels, to treatment. Similar to other e-waste in China, at present storage is still the most common disposal method, accounting for about 54% of the discarded printers. For the remaining 46%, small retailers and second-hand markets are still the primary collection channel in China. Although formal recycling enterprises and producers have also set about recycling waste printers in China, the informal sector still dominates the treatment market for waste printers. The EPR management system of e-waste has now been established in China, and some producers have also attempted to collect and recycle their own waste printers, but the EPR principle is still not the primary model for recycling waste printers. More effective measures are still needed to further promote waste printer recycling in China.

Design for remanufacturing in China: a case study of electrical and electronic equipment

As global demand for consumer goods continues to rise, the problem of waste electrical and electronic equipment (or e-waste) increases. E-waste is of particular concern to the world’s governments and environmentalists alike, not just because of the sheer quantity that is being produced annually, but also because e-waste often contains both hazardous materials and scarce or valuable materials. Much research is now focused upon how this waste can be treated safely, economically, and in an environmentally sound manner. This paper presents the findings from a literature review and case study research conducted as a small part of the Globally Recoverable and Eco-friendly E-equipment Network with Distributed Information Service Management (GREENet) project. The GREENet project aims to share knowledge and expertise in e-waste treatment across Europe (in this case, the UK) and China. The focus of this particular study was upon ‘design for remanufacture’ and e-waste in China: as a remanufacturing industry begins to emerge, are Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) prepared to design more remanufacturable products and could electrical and electronic products become a part of this industry? Findings presented in this paper suggest that design for remanufacture could become more relevant to Chinese OEMs in the near future, as environmental legislation becomes increasingly stringent and a government remanufacturing pilot scheme expands. However, findings from case studies of Chinese e-waste recyclers would suggest that electrical and electronic products are not presently highly suited to the remanufacturing process.

Environmental and health challenges of the global growth of electronic waste

Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest growing type ofsolid waste because of the continual improvement of elec-trical and electronic equipment. The e-waste recyclingbusiness is a large and rapidly consolidating businessin all areas of the developed world (US EnvironmentalProtection Agency 2011). The recovery of precious met-als, such as copper, gold, silver, and palladium, is theincentive for erwaste recycling.Thethreatstohealthandtheenvironment posed by e-waste must also be considered. Themanagement of e-waste has become a global challenge to theenvironment.By 2020, e-waste from old computers will have increasedby 200 % to 400 % from 2007 levels in South Africa andChina and by 500 % in India. By 2020, e-waste fromdiscarded mobile phones will be approximately 7 and 18times higher than 2007levels in China and India, respectively(United Nations Environment Programme 2012). DespiteChina’s ban on e-waste imports, the country remains a majore-waste dumping ground for developed countries. Moreover,most e-waste in China is handled improperly, with much ofthis waste incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valu-able metals such as gold.India’s e-waste recycling industry is dominated by the so-called informal sector, where tens of thousands of people areestimated to make their living from material recovery. Manyfacilities where e-waste is processed and materials are re-covered for recycling are small, independent workshops.There are often few or no real controls over the materialsprocessed in these facilities or their emissions and dis-charges. A wide variety of organic chemicals and highconcentrations of heavy metals have been found in samplesof e-waste burning residues collected in China and India. Inaddition to the effect of the ongoing input to the environ-ment from the open burning of e-waste, workers at a site inIbrahimpur, New Delhi, India reported that food was oftencooked over burning e-waste. There is clear potential forfood to become contaminated with the hazardous chemicalsidentified in the ash from such sites (Brigden et al. 2005;United Nations Environment Programme 2009).In 2009, approximately 171,000 tons of e-waste fromconsumers, repair shops, and communal collection reachedthe informal recycling sector in Ghana. Assuming lineargrowth, the import of e-waste will double by the year2020. The current situation has led to an important informal

Environmental and human exposure to persistent halogenated compounds derived from e‐waste in China

Various classes of persistent halogenated compounds (PHCs) can be released into the environment due to improper handling and disposal of electronic waste (e-waste), which creates severe environmental problems and poses hazards to human health as well. In this review, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), polybrominated phenols (PBPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs), and chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ClPAHs) are the main target contaminants for examination. As the world's largest importer and recycler of e-waste, China has been under tremendous pressure to deal with this huge e-waste situation. This review assesses the magnitude of the e-waste problems in China based on data obtained from the last several years, during which many significant investigations have been conducted. Comparative analyses of the concentrations of several classes of toxic compounds, in which e-waste recycling sites are compared with reference sites in China, have indicated that improper e-waste handling affects the environment of dismantling sites more than that of control sites. An assessment of the annual mass loadings of PBDEs, PBBs, TBBPA, PBPs, PCDD/Fs, and ClPAHs from e-waste in China has shown that PBDEs are the dominant components of PHCs in e-waste, followed by ClPAHs and PCDD/Fs. The annual loadings of PBDEs, ClPAHs, and PCDD/Fs emission were estimated to range from 76,200 to 182,000, 900 to 2,000 and 3 to 8 kg/year, respectively. However, PCDD/Fs and ClPAHs should not be neglected because they are also primarily released from e-waste recycling processes. Overall, the magnitude of human exposure to these toxics in e-waste sites in China is at the high end of the global range.

Managing e-waste in China: Policies, pilot projects and alternative approaches

As the largest exporter of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and importer of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE, also called e-waste) around the world, China plays a key role in the global life cycle of electronics. This paper reviews the existing framework for e-waste management in China including regulatory policies and pilot projects. The Chinese government has been active in creating a legislative and institutional framework to realize e-waste recycling. Pilot projects have been established with the intent to test new formal systems to replace informal recycling. These projects have usually failed to collect sufficient e-waste, mainly because informal recyclers pay consumers for their e-waste and pilot projects do not. Challenges to implementing e-waste reuse/recycling systems particular to the Chinese situation are analyzed and two alternative policy approaches are proposed to deal with these challenges. The first policy approach proposed is a system which shares financial responsibility among consumers, manufacturers and the government. The system includes a deposit returned to consumers as an incentive to turn in e-waste. The second proposal is, where appropriate, to include an e-waste channel which mixes informal and formal sectors, with the informal sector handling collection and reuse and the formal sector responsible for dismantling and recycling.

Regulating for e-waste in China: progress and challenges

Electronic waste (e-waste) is an emerging issue in the municipal towns of China. Its significance is driven by the rapidly increasing quantities, the hazards involved and the valuable materials in it. The poor quality e-waste recycling and disposal methods commonly practised in China have serious and hazardous effects on the environment and on the health of workers and residents. Additionally, industrialised countries are exporting increasing quantities of e-waste to China, complicating the situation further. The Chinese government needs to strengthen regulatory systems to ensure that the huge economic benefits from the e-waste recycling industry are not overshadowed by the negative impact on welfare and overall environmental sustainability. In response to the growing concern on e-waste, the government and other policy-making agencies in China are continuously strengthening the legislative and institutional framework for regulating importation and industrial activities in e-waste recycling and disposal. This paper provides a situational analysis and discusses the basic elements of the existing legislative framework for e-waste management in China. The paper concludes with an analysis of opportunities and challenges that exist in improving the enabling/regulatory environment for a hazardous but valuable commodity in a fast-growing economy.

Electrical and electronic waste management in China: progress and the barriers to overcome

Serious adverse impacts on the environment and human health from e-waste recycling have occurred in the past and continue to occur in China today, due to a lack of national management strategies. China has made great efforts to face the challenges of the approaching peak increase in the domestic generation of e-waste and the illegal shipment of e-waste from other countries. This study examined recent progress and analysed the main problems associated with this issue in China. It was found that the material and the financial flows of e-waste in China had their own specific characteristics. Nearly 60% of the generated e-wastes were sold to private individual collectors and passed into informal recycling processes. More than 90% of Chinese citizens are reluctant to pay for the recycling of their e-waste. This is due to their traditional understanding that there remained value in these end-of-life products. Regulations concerning e-waste in China have been drafted but their deficiencies are obvious. The extended producer responsibilities (EPR) have been introduced but are not well defined. Eight formal facilities have been planned and are under construction or are in operation along the eastern coast of China but it will be difficult for them to compete with the informal processes for the reasons identified during the study.