Development potential of e-waste recycling industry in China

Abstract

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) recycling industries in China have been through several phases from spontaneous informal family workshops to qualified enterprises with treatment fund. This study attempts to analyse the development potential of the e-waste recycling industry in China from the perspective of both time and scale potential. An estimation and forecast of e-waste quantities in China shows that, the total e-waste amount reached approximately 5.5 million tonnes in 2013, with 83% of air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions sand computers. The total quantity is expected to reach ca. 11.7 million tonnes in 2020 and 20 million tonnes in 2040, which indicates a large increase potential. Moreover, the demand for recycling processing facilities, the optimal service radius of e-waste recycling enterprises and estimation of the profitability potential of the e-waste recycling industry were analysed. Results show that, based on the e-waste collection demand, e-waste recycling enterprises therefore have a huge development potential in terms of both quantity and processing capacity, with 144 and 167 e-waste recycling facilities needed, respectively, by 2020 and 2040. In the case that e-waste recycling enterprises set up their own collection points to reduce the collection cost, the optimal collection service radius is estimated to be in the range of 173 km to 239 km. With an e-waste treatment fund subsidy, the e-waste recycling industry has a small economic profit, for example ca. US$2.5/unit for television. The annual profit for the e-waste recycling industry overall was about 90 million dollars in 2013.

Green IT and sustainable technology development: Bibliometric overview

“…This can be explained by an increasing global concern about environmental damage to the planet, which is leading society to restore the living space on the planet (Andrae, ). Moreover, people are becoming conscious of pollution actions such as e‐waste dumping (11.7 millions of tons are expected to be generated by 2020 in China alone; Li, Yang, & Liu, ). As an example, many programs concerning sustainability are now found all over the world, such as Green Citizens from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization with a budget of M$667 for the period 2016–2017 and Switch Africa Green, funded by an EU grant, with a budget of M€20.5.…”

“…This can be explained by an increasing global concern about environmental damage to the planet, which is leading society to restore the living space on the planet (Andrae, 2016). Moreover, people are becoming conscious of pollution actions such as ewaste dumping (11.7 millions of tons are expected to be generated by 2020 in China alone; Li, Yang, & Liu, 2015). As an example, many 2015).…”

Knowledge, Practices, and Environmental and Occupational Health Risks Associated with Electronic Waste Recycling in Cotonou, Benin

“…All participants in our study were male, and their average age was 24 have worked between 3 and 5 years, 17.8% have worked between 5 and 10 years, and 22.2% have worked for more than 10 years recycling e-waste. The majority (71.1%) of the recyclers surveyed engage in no other professional activity except e-waste recycling.…”

Life-cycle energy use and GHG emissions of waste television treatment system in China

“…Actually, some formal recycling plants are trying to build their own collection channels, and then collect WEEE by a trans-regional online platform. To do so, they need to quantify their optimal collection service radius (Li et al, 2015b). We compared traditional collection and website-based collection with transport for a specific location.…”