Current status and research on E-waste issues in Asia

Abstract

Rapid economic growth in Asia and the increasing transboundary movement of secondary resources will increasingly require both 3R endeavors (reduce, reuse, recycle) in each country and appropriate control of international material cycles. Recently, managing electrical and electronic waste (E-waste) has become an important target for domestic and international material cycles from the viewpoints of environmental preservation and resource utilization efficiency. To understand the current status of E-waste issues in the context of international material cycles and to discuss the future tasks related to achieving 3R in the region, we organized the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) E-waste Workshop in December 2004. This article reviews past studies on E-waste and briefly describes the topics presented and discussions held at the workshop. The topics at the workshop included E-waste generation, recycling systems, international trade, and environmental impacts. In addition, we discussed various issues such as terminology, current environmental concerns, and possible solutions. Transboundary shipments of E-waste should be conducted taking into consideration the concept of sustainable development. The direction of future research and possible collaborations are also discussed.

Levels and spatial distribution of gaseous polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated naphthalenes in the air over the northern South China Sea

“…These trends are probably due to the relatively high atmospheric concentrations of PCBs in most countries around the SCS caused by tens of millions of tons of electrical and electronic equipment disposal (Terazono et al, 2006) and the booming ship-breaking industry (Hess et al, 2001). The atmospheric concentrations of developed areas such as North America and Europe (Shen et al, 2006) have proved to be high because of the extensive historical use of PCBs (Jaward et al, 2005).…”

Spatial characteristics of cadmium in topsoils in a typical e-waste recycling area in southeast China and its potential threat to shallow groundwater

“…These informal dismantling, recycling, and disposal practices caused severe heavy metal (HM) pollution in air, dust, soil, river water and sediment in e-waste recycling area (Deng et al, 2006;Ha et al, 2009;Zhang and Min, 2009). Informal recycling is currently the prevalent e-waste recycling practice in China, especially in some coastal regions Terazono et al, 2006;Yang, 2008).…”

Are WEEE in Control? Rethinking Strategies for Managing Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

“…To cope with the alarmingly large quantities of EoL products it receives and the attendant spontaneous illegal/informal and in some cases (potentially) harmful handling and treatment of WEEE within the country, China has recently legislated measures to cope with WEEE. Stockpiling of WEEE also occurs since people rarely dispose of their used EEE due to the perception that goods retain a residual value which might have future uses Li et al, 2006;Terazono, Murakami, et al, 2006;Y. Wang et al, 2009;Xinhua News Agency, 2010).…”