An agenda to move forward electronics recycling in China
Take back and recycling of discarded electronic products is receiving more and more attention worldwide. The reason for this is that is twofold. First materials are kept in the application loop so that resource depletion is slowed down. Second, the potential toxicity of materials can be controlled and the volume going into landfills can be reduced. Take back and recycling activities also result in employment and will contribute to the reduction of the environmental load per unit of GDP. It has been shown in ref. 1 that take back and recycling of discarded electronics can bring - when properly executed - substantial environmental gains for the money invested. For China electronics recycling can have even more dramatic implications than in the fully developed economies. Already now the number of TVs and cell-phones sold in China supersedes the number sold in the USA, with PCs, washing machines and fridges soon to follow. On the other hand a specialized Eco-efficient industry infrastructure for recycling is still under development. This offers the opportunity to leapfrog intermediate technologies and adopt the best available technology with investment. Also driving take back through legislation is still under development in China. This will allow for the inclusion of improvements with respect to, for instance, the European Directive on Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The competitive labor cost of China will allow them, when their high tech recycling systems are up and running, to attract electronic waste from other countries and treat such waste as well. This paper will formulate a clear agenda for how to develop a powerful Chinese recycling industry. In chapter 2 the basic legislative framework underlying the building of this new industry will be reviewed. The baseline will be recycling systems for electronics already running in Europe and the European Directive WEEE. Departing from this, avenues to be followed will be sketched. In chapter 3, the transformation of the current recycling industry in China into a specialized high tech industry and economy of scale are discussed.
Ab Stevels Jin Hui Li
国际会议
The 4th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology(第四届固体废物管理与技术国际会议)
北京
英文
623-629
2009-11-28（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）