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

Jinglei Yu, Eric Williams, Meiting Ju and Chaofeng Shao

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2010, vol. 54, issue 11, 991-999

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: E-waste; Pilot project; Shared responsibility system; Integrated collection system; Extended producer responsibility; Advance recycling fee (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:54:y:2010:i:11:p:991-999

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.02.006

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