E-waste recycling faces challenges and opportunities

The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China has officially banned the import of electronic waste from foreign countries to engage in processing trade. This means that the existing e-waste disposal capacity will shift to finding sources in the Mainland, and electronic waste recycling will become a new competitive hot spot sooner or later. However, the problem is that the current protagonist in this market is still "recovery guerrillas." Huang Jianqing, secretary-general of the Shanghai Material Recycling Commercial Trade Association, pointed out: "The low-cost, high-efficiency e-waste recycling system can be said to be a blank point."

E-waste is the fastest growing trash in the world. With only one computer, the United States abandons more than 300 million units each year. It is reported that currently 50% to 80% of the world's electronic waste is sold to developing countries, 90% of which are sold to China, and Taizhou, Zhejiang and other places have already formed foreign electronic waste disposal sites.

The specialized disposal of electronic waste is a gold mine. According to the statistics, after specialized recycling, 1 kg of discarded computers can recover 0.9 kg of gold, 270 kg of plastic, 128.7 kg of copper, 1 kg of iron, 58.5 kg of lead, and 39.6 kg of tin. At present, many intuitionists in China have begun to pay attention to this industry. In Shanghai and its surrounding areas, some large-scale and specialized electronic disposal production capabilities have been formed. For example, in Taizhou and other places, specialized disposal production lines constructed by East China University of Science and Technology and other units are expected to be put into production next year.

E-waste worth is bullish, but at present, the main recycling channel for e-waste is basically in the hands of the “guerrilla”. Huang Jianqing said that about 90% of Shanghai's discarded electronic products are recovered by street vendors and 10% are returned by the retailers. Some of these products are directly used in the secondary market, and some are dismantled and reused in the hands of workshops located in the urban-rural area, while others are sold to the surrounding areas for processing and disposal.

In an electric appliance market in Shanghai, the owner of some stores stated that basically only the display tube is left for the abandoned color TVs that have been collected, and other things are removed and thrown away. After the computers are removed from the motherboard, they are also thrown away. "Obviously this is a spontaneous, inefficient recycling," said Xu Jingan, secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Association for Comprehensive Utilization of Resources. "And the resulting environmental pollution is very serious." A soil contaminant residue test report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that a certain soil Heavy metals such as mercury and chromium have been severely exceeded, and even toxic substances such as PCBs have appeared. This is related to improper disposal of electronic waste.

It is reported that in the past two years, about 700,000 tons of electronic waste have appeared in Shanghai each year. The major inflows to the market last year were abandoned by residents, and most of the remaining waste was placed in warehouses of institutions, schools, and enterprises. According to calculations, Shanghai will enter the e-waste abandonment period in 2005, and more than 400,000 tons of discarded electronic products will flow into the market, and will grow at a faster rate each year thereafter. "If you do not establish formal recycling channels, it will be too late for waste to enter the market on a large scale," said Huang Jianqing.

People in the industry believe that Shanghai has the conditions to explore the country first and establish a low-cost, high-efficiency e-waste recycling system. They also pointed out that there are currently three problems that need to be solved.

First, laws and regulations are still missing. Now the country is brewing regulations on electronic waste disposal to standardize the rights and obligations of environmental protection departments, home appliance manufacturers, distributors and consumers in the recycling system. “It will take time for this regulation to be formally promulgated. Shanghai can try to first introduce local industry regulations to explore the road first,” said Lu Zhu, professor of the Department of Environmental and Resource Management at East China University of Science and Technology.

The second is that the competent department of the industry is unknown. It is reported that currently the management functions of the electronic waste industry are scattered in several different sectors such as the environment and sanitation. "Every family can control, but also can be ignored. The industry belongs to unknown, industry planning is of course on paper." Xu Jingan said.

The third is the lack of recycling industry standards. For marketization and professional recycling, it is necessary to set corresponding industry thresholds for recyclers and establish corresponding technical standards for qualification certification. Huang Jianqing said, "Now that this authoritative qualification indicator is missing, it is hard to say that there will not be any "professional" coming in."