How are WEEE doing? A global review of the management of electrical and electronic wastes

Institutional-based antecedents and performance outcomes of internal and external green supply chain management practices

Products that go round: exploring product life extension through design

Handling e-waste in developed and developing countries: initiatives, practices, and consequences.

Chemical hazards associated with treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment.

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.

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

Electronic waste (e-waste) has emerged as a new policy priority around the world. Motivations to address e-waste include rapidly growing waste streams, concern over the environmental fate of heavy metals and other substances in e-waste, and impacts of informal recycling in developing countries. Policy responses to global e-waste focus on banning international trade in end-of-life electronics, the premise being that e-waste is mainly generated in the developed world and then exported to the developing world. Sales of electronics have, however, been growing rapidly in developing nations, raising the question of whether informal recycling in developing countries driven by international trade or domestic generation. This paper addresses this question by forecasting the global generation of obsolete personal computers (PCs) using the logistic model and material flow analysis. Results show that the volume of obsolete PCs generated in developing regions will exceed that of developed regions by 2016-2018. By 2030, the obsolete PCs from developing regions will reach 400-700 million units, far more than from developed regions at 200-300 million units. Future policies to mitigate the impacts of informal recycling should address the domestic situation in developing countries.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es903350q

Forecasting Global Generation of Obsolete Personal Computers

Analysis of material and energy consumption of mobile phones in China

China's aircraft-related CO2 emissions: Decomposition analysis, decoupling status, and future trends

As the amount of waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) increases dramatically, methods to recycle them become increasingly important not only for economic reasons but also for environmental ones. PCB recycling methods include mechanical, pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and biometallurgical processes. By comparing the different technologies available for PCB recycling, we aim to discover the limitations of different recycling methods, ways to overcome these limitations, and potential combinations of these methods so as to realize more economically sound and environmentally friendly recycling of PCBs.

Jinglei Yu

Papers

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

Forecasting Global Generation of Obsolete Personal Computers

Analysis of material and energy consumption of mobile phones in China

China's aircraft-related CO2 emissions: Decomposition analysis, decoupling status, and future trends

Review and prospects of recycling methods for waste printed circuit boards