Research on Used Electric and Electronic Equipment in China

The production of electric and electronic equipment is one of the fastest growing areas. This development has resulted in an increase of waste electric and electronic equipment. In view of the environmental problems involved in the management of wasted EEE, many counties and organizations have drafted national legislation to improve the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes so as to reduce disposal. The existing recycling system (direct way to material recycling) is one solution for both saving materials and reducing environmental impact. But the recycled value is very limited and loosing values of used EEE. The purpose of this paper is intended to have clear picture on the demand of second hand market of used EEE to propose optimal recycling system in China.

I. Introduction

The production of electric and electronic equipment (EEE) is increasing worldwide. Both technological innovation and market expansion continue to accelerate the replacement of equipment leading to a significant increase of waste electric and electronic equipment. In west Europe, 6 million tons of wasted EEE was generated in 2000, the amount of wasted EEE is expected to increase by at least 3–5% per annum [3]. In the USA, a recent study shown that over 315 million computers would be at end of their life by the year 2004 [4]. EEE has started to enter Chinese households from 1980, the EEE has reached to their life time and it will be in peak output for wasted EEE currently in China. It is predicted that there will be 400 million to 500 million refrigerators, TVs and washing machines will be discarded every year in China [5].