Viewpoint Cite This: Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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E‑waste Recycling in China: A Challenging Field Jianjie Fu,† Haiyan Zhang,*,‡ Aiqian Zhang,† and Guibin Jiang† †
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China ‡ College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China However, it is not the end of the story. Apart from transboundary importation, China itself is presently the second largest global producer of e-waste. The domestic generation of e-waste was about 6 million tonnes in 2014.3 The per capita Chinese e-waste production per year was below the global average (5 kg vs 5.9 kg), and the rates of developed countries such as the USA and Japan.3 Nevertheless, the annual increase rate of e-waste production in China was much higher than the global average (25.7% vs approximately 4−5%),2,3 indicating that it is a major generator of e-waste. China is anticipated to generate approximately 28.4 million tonnes of e-waste in 2030, replacing the USA as the largest global e-waste producer.2 Enhanced regulations and sophisticated recycling technologies could lead to positive effects in controlling the release of pollutants to the environment.4 There are 109 licensed recycling enterprises (formal e-waste recyclers) in China currently (http://weee.mepscc.cn/Index.do?method=flow), but only 1.3 million tonnes of domestic e-wastes were recycled and treated by formal e-waste recyclers in 2013,3 suggesting that most of the domestic e-wastes are not being handled appropriately. A field survey found that the domestic e-waste already accounted for a large part of e-waste in Guiyu in 2015,2 which further implied that China is facing the problem from the -waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the fast-growing domestic generation of e-waste. world. Valuable metals, such as Cu, Al, and Au, in e-wastes China is paying great attention to the e-waste recycling make e-waste recycling profitable and, thus, promote the issues. Among e-waste papers published by top 10 countries, activities of e-waste recycling. However, large amounts of toxic China ranked first and published over 1300 peer-reviewed substances (e.g., Pb, Cd, persistent organic pollutants) are often papers on e-waste since 2000 (Figure 1 inset), which accounted released from the primitive dismantling activities of e-wastes to for 43.3%, followed by the USA (15.6%) and Germany (7.7%). the surrounding environment and further trigger health These papers have covered the fields of environmental impacts, consequences to the unprotected employees and local human health risks, policy studies, recycling technologies of e1 residents. The e-waste recycling issue is like a Pandora’s box waste, etc. It is a challenge to deal with the e-waste recycling and raises major environmental and social concerns because of issues in both environmental and economic interests. Recycling potential environmental and health risks. As a result, there is a e-waste is generally more cost-effective than virgin mining, and sharp increase in the number of peer-reviewed papers reporting the huge amounts of valuable materials in e-waste provide a the problems (Figure 1). great opportunity. The e-waste recycling potential in China is Although China has ratified Basel Convention on the expected to reach $73.4 billion US dollars by the year 2030.2 Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous However, present management strategies and domestic Wastes and their Disposal in the 1990s, China is still the collection and recycling systems are inadequate to meet the world’s largest country for e-waste dumping. The importation opportunity. On one hand, less than 25% of the total domestic of e-wastes from developed countries to China was about 1.5 generated e-waste was treated by formal e-waste recycling million tonnes in 2001, of which 46.7% ended up in Guiyu, facilities. New licensed recycling enterprises or expansion of Guangdong province, known as the largest e-waste dismantling recycling capacities are in great demand. On the other hand, a more effective domestic e-waste collection system should be site in the world.2 China tightened the regulation on the ban of established to fulfill the operational need of these factories. importation and informal recycling of e-wastes, and declared Meanwhile, the investigation of environmental impacts and that it was no longer willing to accept foreign garbage since 1 health consequences among workers from formal e-waste January 2018. The declining trend of imported e-waste has recycling facilities will be indispensable. Moreover, the pace of been observed over the years, in which the estimated e-waste importation is expected to be reduced to 0.32 million tonnes in 2018 and will eventually disappear in 2023.2
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© XXXX American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b02329 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Environmental Science & Technology
Figure 1. Trend (main chart) and contribution (inset chart) of peer-reviewed papers on e-waste topic published by top 10 countries since 2000. (Data accessed on April 17, 2018, and searched with key word “e-waste” or “waste electrical and electronic equipment” or “WEEE” in Web of Science.)
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treatment technologies should follow the evolution of eproduct formulation because the substances in the e-products vary significantly from one generation to the next. For example, the nickel−metal hydride batteries have been gradually replaced by lithium-ion batteries, whereas the end-of-life recycling rates were >50% for nickel and
