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Riding flatbed tricycles and ram- shackle minivans, Zhang Feiyu, a Beijing resident, scours the streets of the Chinese capital in search of an array of valuable metals used in electronic appliances. Zhang, 32, and his band of treasure hunters root through garbage day and night to take collections of their ultimate prize: used and dilapidated electronic products, known as e-waste.
From computers and mobile phones to television sets, refrigerators and washing machines, used electronic goods have allowed Zhang and similar back-alley entrepreneurs to tap the burgeoning, yet mostly unknown, business of e-waste disposal.
After collection, Zhang and his fellow workers dismantle the discarded electronics, dissecting circuit boards to harvest bits of gold, silver and copper.
“We can usually extract 1 gram of gold, 10 grams of silver and maybe 50 grams of copper from 10 computer circuits,” said Zhang, who has been in the e-waste disposal business for the past eight years.
Privately owned workshops like Zhang’s have become the main force driving China’s e-waste disposal industry. Guiyu, a small town in Guangdong Province, has been dubbed the “No.1 ewaste disposal town” with more than 5,000 family-run workshops employing close to 200,000 people.
But these small disposal stations lack the oversight and safety measures of governmentowned facilities. After valuable metals are extracted, the toxic by-products associated with e-waste recycling are randomly dumped, causing immense damage to the local environment.
As concerns continue to proliferate, the Central Government is attempting in to rein in and develop the e-waste recycling sector.
Government in action
By the end of 2011, China had 84 companies involved in e-waste disassembling and disposal, according to the Ministry of Environment Protection (MEP). More than half are foreignfunded or privately owned operations using advanced eco-friendly technologies.
High operating costs and an underdeveloped collection mechanism have limited these disposal plants to take collections only from recycling stations, leaving most of the household e-waste to family workshops like Zhang’s.
In a bid to develop the e-waste disposal industry, the Chinese Government released a new regulation on July 1, which requires producers of TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers to pay 7-13 yuan ($1.1-$2.04) per unit as the fund for the disposal of these electronic products.
E-waste disposal plants will receive a 35-85 yuan ($5.49-13.33) subsidy for each piece of electronic appliance processed.
The government hopes the measure will incentivize consumers to recycle outdated or damaged electronic appliances instead of sending them to traditional garbage collection facilities.
“Establishing standard e-waste disposal plants is key to China’s environment protection efforts. The government will provide policy management and capital support to foster this industry,” said Tang Aijun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Resource Recycling Association.
An immense market
According to Ministry of Commerce data, by the end of last year, China had reported household ownership of 520 million TV sets, 300 million refrigerators, 320 million washing machines, 330 million air conditioners and 300 million computers. Each year, consumers throw out tens of millions of these five main categories of products, plus a huge amount of sub-category goods like cellphones, digital cameras and duplicators.
China now is the second largest e-waste producer worldwide, after the United States, generating 2.3 million tons each year.
In recent years, government policies encouraging individuals to buy new home appliances at discounts, with the aim of spurring the domestic economy in the wake of the global financial crisis, have resulted in a hefty increase in e-waste that the existing facilities find hard to handle.
Meanwhile, foreign e-waste is also being smuggled into the country, said Hu Tao, chief scientist at the MEP and director of the academic board at the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy.
“About 70 percent of the e-waste around the world has been transported to China,” Hu said. “There are eight foreign e-waste collection and distribution centers in the country. Among these, Guangzhou’s Guiyu Town in Shantou, Longtang Town in Qingyuan and Dali Town in Foshan are now gathering over 50 percent of that foreign e-waste in China,” he said.
Legality aside, the processing procedures of these private facilities don’t meet the international standard for a circular economy, said Hou Yuxuan, a research fellow at CIConsulting.
Disposal difficulties
Centralized e-waste processing has long been on the government’s agenda.
Early in 2008, some 11 government departments in Shandong Province jointly formulated a regulation requiring all government departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to hand in discarded electronics for centralized processing and disposal.
Beijing and Shanghai have also launched campaigns to encourage govern- ment departments to seek centralized e-waste processing by offering subsidies.
In January 2011, the Central Government released a regulation on ewaste processing, encouraging electronic appliance producers to solicit e-waste either on their own or by entrusting a third-party agency.
However, due to the high cost of collecting and processing e-waste, many companies lack the financial ability to implement the regulation. Internet searches for “e-waste collection” will yield individuals and privately owned operations disguised as official e-waste recyclers.
Producer Responsibility
In designing its own e-waste disposal mechanism, China should look overseas, drawing on the success stories of other countries, said Dai Xingyi, Director of the Urban Environment Management Center at Fudan University.
Western countries lead the helm of the green movement in terms of best practices for the circular economy. Apart from ewaste recycling channels provided by the government, many electronic appliance manufacturers and retailers offer their own disposal measures.
At the 2012 International Forum on the Sustainability of Consumer Electronics held in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province, on July 6, Walter Alcorn, Vice President of the U.S. Environmental Affairs and Industry Sustainability of Consumer Electronics Association, said laws and regulations on e-waste in the United States differ from state to state. A total of 25 states have unveiled related laws, 24 of which require manufacturers to be responsible for the disposal of their e-waste. Only California stipulates consumers should pay for the disposal costs.
Europe was among the first to realize the importance of recycling e-waste. The Directive Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) came into force on January 27, 2003, encompassing 10 product categories, amounting to more than 100 devices.
Since 2004, South Korea has begun to recycle e-waste with an annual average volume of 120,000 tons, according to the Korea Electronics Association. By 2010, a total of 112 enterprises had joined the recycling system. The implementation of the new regulation on levying an e-waste fund brings China closer to the producer responsibility scheme, said Dai.
But the biggest resistance to the scheme now comes from producers and manufacturers, said Dai. The government should regulate producers, making them responsi- ble for collecting and disposing of a certain amount of e-waste in accordance with their production output. Meanwhile, those who produce polluting electronics but refuse to collect or dispose of their products should be levied with an environment protection tax.
Guangzhou may be in the midst of taking Dai’s advice. Earlier in July, the CPPCC(Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) Guangzhou Committee handed in a proposal to the municipal government suggesting the city adopt a producer responsibility scheme. After the proposal is put into practice, the city could set an example nationwide for safe e-waste disposal.
From computers and mobile phones to television sets, refrigerators and washing machines, used electronic goods have allowed Zhang and similar back-alley entrepreneurs to tap the burgeoning, yet mostly unknown, business of e-waste disposal.
After collection, Zhang and his fellow workers dismantle the discarded electronics, dissecting circuit boards to harvest bits of gold, silver and copper.
“We can usually extract 1 gram of gold, 10 grams of silver and maybe 50 grams of copper from 10 computer circuits,” said Zhang, who has been in the e-waste disposal business for the past eight years.
Privately owned workshops like Zhang’s have become the main force driving China’s e-waste disposal industry. Guiyu, a small town in Guangdong Province, has been dubbed the “No.1 ewaste disposal town” with more than 5,000 family-run workshops employing close to 200,000 people.
But these small disposal stations lack the oversight and safety measures of governmentowned facilities. After valuable metals are extracted, the toxic by-products associated with e-waste recycling are randomly dumped, causing immense damage to the local environment.
As concerns continue to proliferate, the Central Government is attempting in to rein in and develop the e-waste recycling sector.
Government in action
By the end of 2011, China had 84 companies involved in e-waste disassembling and disposal, according to the Ministry of Environment Protection (MEP). More than half are foreignfunded or privately owned operations using advanced eco-friendly technologies.
High operating costs and an underdeveloped collection mechanism have limited these disposal plants to take collections only from recycling stations, leaving most of the household e-waste to family workshops like Zhang’s.
In a bid to develop the e-waste disposal industry, the Chinese Government released a new regulation on July 1, which requires producers of TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers to pay 7-13 yuan ($1.1-$2.04) per unit as the fund for the disposal of these electronic products.
E-waste disposal plants will receive a 35-85 yuan ($5.49-13.33) subsidy for each piece of electronic appliance processed.
The government hopes the measure will incentivize consumers to recycle outdated or damaged electronic appliances instead of sending them to traditional garbage collection facilities.
“Establishing standard e-waste disposal plants is key to China’s environment protection efforts. The government will provide policy management and capital support to foster this industry,” said Tang Aijun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Resource Recycling Association.
An immense market
According to Ministry of Commerce data, by the end of last year, China had reported household ownership of 520 million TV sets, 300 million refrigerators, 320 million washing machines, 330 million air conditioners and 300 million computers. Each year, consumers throw out tens of millions of these five main categories of products, plus a huge amount of sub-category goods like cellphones, digital cameras and duplicators.
China now is the second largest e-waste producer worldwide, after the United States, generating 2.3 million tons each year.
In recent years, government policies encouraging individuals to buy new home appliances at discounts, with the aim of spurring the domestic economy in the wake of the global financial crisis, have resulted in a hefty increase in e-waste that the existing facilities find hard to handle.
Meanwhile, foreign e-waste is also being smuggled into the country, said Hu Tao, chief scientist at the MEP and director of the academic board at the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy.
“About 70 percent of the e-waste around the world has been transported to China,” Hu said. “There are eight foreign e-waste collection and distribution centers in the country. Among these, Guangzhou’s Guiyu Town in Shantou, Longtang Town in Qingyuan and Dali Town in Foshan are now gathering over 50 percent of that foreign e-waste in China,” he said.
Legality aside, the processing procedures of these private facilities don’t meet the international standard for a circular economy, said Hou Yuxuan, a research fellow at CIConsulting.
Disposal difficulties
Centralized e-waste processing has long been on the government’s agenda.
Early in 2008, some 11 government departments in Shandong Province jointly formulated a regulation requiring all government departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to hand in discarded electronics for centralized processing and disposal.
Beijing and Shanghai have also launched campaigns to encourage govern- ment departments to seek centralized e-waste processing by offering subsidies.
In January 2011, the Central Government released a regulation on ewaste processing, encouraging electronic appliance producers to solicit e-waste either on their own or by entrusting a third-party agency.
However, due to the high cost of collecting and processing e-waste, many companies lack the financial ability to implement the regulation. Internet searches for “e-waste collection” will yield individuals and privately owned operations disguised as official e-waste recyclers.
Producer Responsibility
In designing its own e-waste disposal mechanism, China should look overseas, drawing on the success stories of other countries, said Dai Xingyi, Director of the Urban Environment Management Center at Fudan University.
Western countries lead the helm of the green movement in terms of best practices for the circular economy. Apart from ewaste recycling channels provided by the government, many electronic appliance manufacturers and retailers offer their own disposal measures.
At the 2012 International Forum on the Sustainability of Consumer Electronics held in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province, on July 6, Walter Alcorn, Vice President of the U.S. Environmental Affairs and Industry Sustainability of Consumer Electronics Association, said laws and regulations on e-waste in the United States differ from state to state. A total of 25 states have unveiled related laws, 24 of which require manufacturers to be responsible for the disposal of their e-waste. Only California stipulates consumers should pay for the disposal costs.
Europe was among the first to realize the importance of recycling e-waste. The Directive Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) came into force on January 27, 2003, encompassing 10 product categories, amounting to more than 100 devices.
Since 2004, South Korea has begun to recycle e-waste with an annual average volume of 120,000 tons, according to the Korea Electronics Association. By 2010, a total of 112 enterprises had joined the recycling system. The implementation of the new regulation on levying an e-waste fund brings China closer to the producer responsibility scheme, said Dai.
But the biggest resistance to the scheme now comes from producers and manufacturers, said Dai. The government should regulate producers, making them responsi- ble for collecting and disposing of a certain amount of e-waste in accordance with their production output. Meanwhile, those who produce polluting electronics but refuse to collect or dispose of their products should be levied with an environment protection tax.
Guangzhou may be in the midst of taking Dai’s advice. Earlier in July, the CPPCC(Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) Guangzhou Committee handed in a proposal to the municipal government suggesting the city adopt a producer responsibility scheme. After the proposal is put into practice, the city could set an example nationwide for safe e-waste disposal.