Electronic waste or e-waste in China refers to electronic products that are no longer usable and are therefore dumped or recycled. China is the world's largest importer and producer of electronic waste with over 70% of all global e-waste ending up in the world's largest dumpsites. An estimated 60–80% of this e-waste is handled through illegal informal recycling processes, without the necessary safety precautions legally required by Chinese government regulations. Processing e-waste in this way directly causes serious environmental damage and permanent health risks in areas surrounding the disposal sites. While the Chinese government and the international community have taken action to regulate e-waste management, ineffective enforcement, legislative loopholes, and the pervasiveness of informal recycling have been obstacles to mitigating the consequences of e-waste.
Sources
Domestic China's domestic contribution of e-waste is substantial. The Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report found that the amount of annual domestic e-waste generation in China alone reaches approximately 10.1 million tons, thus overtaking the U.S. as the largest e-waste producing country. This overtaking was expected given China's rising economic development, technical innovation, and urbanization as more electronics are being created, consumed, and disposed. E-waste from computers, mobile phones, and other electronics is expected to rise to 27.22 million tons by 2030, growing at an average annual rate of 10.4% as the fastest growing waste stream in China.
The major sources of e-waste processed in China are households, domestic institutions such as schools and hospitals, government agencies and businesses, and equipment manufacturers. This e-waste is usually channeled through: second-hand markets where reusable devices can be re-sold at reasonable prices, (illegal) donation systems that send used home appliances to poorer rural areas of western China, or through peddlers who re-sell e-wastes to dealers. The third channel is the most common form of e-waste management in China, which creates a massive informal sector.
Foreign Large amounts of foreign e-waste, mostly from the developed Western world, have been imported into China since the 1970s. Cheaper labor and lax environmental standards attracted e-waste from developed countries that could save much of the cost of processing the waste domestically. By 2000, China was the largest importer of e-waste in the world. According to United Nations data, about 70% of electronic waste globally generated ended up in China,” said Ma Tianjie, a spokesman for the Beijing office of Greenpeace. In January 2018, the Chinese government implemented a waste import ban which Hong Kong has not enforced. Since the resumption of China’s One Country, Two Systems policy in 1997, Chinese policies only prevent e-waste from entering mainland China but not for licensed imports at Hong Kong ports. From Hong Kong, e-waste can be easily transported to the mainland or exported to other countries and back into China via illegal channels.
A 2013 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) examining the e-waste trade showed that most of the e-waste originating in developed countries, such as the US, Japan, Korea, and various countries in the European Union (EU), was illegally bound for developing countries, including China. According to the study, 976,500 tonnes of illegal waste, including e-waste, was seized by Chinese authorities in 2013. In the same year, 211 cases of waste smuggling were halted by Chinese authorities.
Recycling methods
Formal According to a study done in 2020, China’s formal e-waste recycling industry is quite developed, following strict regulations, governmental incentives, and the development and expansion of recycling facilities. The formal recycling process practices safe methods of handling the waste and allows for the recovery of precious raw materials, which can later be reused in other manufacturing. E-waste recycling processes typically consist of the following steps: collection, storage, sorting/dismantling/shredding, separation, and recovery. E-waste is collected from enterprises or manufacturers and safely stored in recycling facilities until they are manually dismantled and sorted into categories of what to discard and what to recover. The smaller electronic parts are further separated into their specific materials using water and magnets, and finally, the desired components can be recovered and restored for future use. Despite the thoroughness of this formal recycling process, it is reported to be only about 40% efficient.
Informal A main contributor to China’s e-waste problem is that the majority of e-waste dumped in China - reports vary between 60% and 80% - is handled through illegal informal recycling processes. Unlike China’s formal methods, informal e-waste recycling is extremely unregulated and unsafe, remaining a profitable market due to cheap labor and a high demand for the disposal of electronics. The informal sector consists of a system of small-scale, often family-run workshops and “backyard” recycling, usually performed by marginalized groups of the population. Peddlers travel from door-to-door and buy unwanted electronics, later reselling them to informal e-waste recyclers. The informal recycling process is often done in the open and uses extremely rudimentary methods such as stripping metals by hand, burning toxic materials, disposing parts in bodies of water, and more. To keep operations running, these informal practices are typically carried out in suburban areas, where there is a lack of effective enforcement and control.
Environmental and health impacts
Environmental While the formal e-waste recycling process in China is contained and regulated, the overwhelming informal sector causes serious environmental hazards. Crude recycling methods, especially the burning of materials, release massive amounts of toxic chemicals like lead, chromium, cadmium, and more. Studies conducted in China report that the soil, air, water, and entire ecosystems near informal recycling sites and e-waste landfills are highly contaminated by these dangerous substances. The air around the vicinity of informal e-waste recycling was found to have particles with high amounts of heavy metals, 100 times greater than normal levels. The pollution of dirt, however, is not contained to only the immediate recycling areas. Studies have found contaminants in the soil of rice fields and duck ponds with toxicity levels failing to meet many international agricultural safety standards. Further, toxins travel through bodies of water from the informal recycling sites, with scientists consistently finding heavy metals in the water, sediment, and even fish. It is predicted that these contaminants will have lasting effects on the environment and allow for the possibility of the formation of more dangerous substances in the future.
Health Lacking the proper methods and necessary safety precautions, informal e-waste recycling is directly responsible for worsening the health of many in China. Since the pollutants that are released during the process travel, the effects on health are widespread. Firstly, those who reside around informal sites experience second-hand exposure to the hazardous e-waste remnants through inhalation, digestion, and skin contact. The workers who directly handle breaking down electronics, often women and children, experience the most harm. Informal workshops are usually not well-ventilated and workers wear little-to-no protective equipment, resulting in direct exposure to toxic substances that can cause severe developmental problems and have been linked to increased chances of cancer. Studies on informal e-waste workers in China showed extremely high levels of hazardous materials in their systems - the highest concentration in humans ever recorded. There is rising concern for the health of children who are exposed, as their potential health risk is measured to be 8 times higher than that of adult e-waste workers due to their smaller size and higher ingestion rate. Scientists are continuing to perform more research on the long-term effects of handling e-waste, focusing especially on pregnant women and children.
Affected regions Most of China's informal recycling sectors are limited to regions along the southeastern coast of China. The main region where the e-waste is shipped to is the Guangdong province, situated along China's south east coast. From there e-waste is spread to other regions such as Zhejiang, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hunan, Fujian and Shandong for processing. E-waste disposal operations frequently occur in the suburban areas, due to the lack of effective enforcement and control.
Guiyu Guiyu in Guangdong Province is the location of the largest electronic waste site on earth. Specializing in informal e-waste recycling for over 30 years, e-waste has become a pillar of the local economy in Guiyu. The town has up to 5,000 workshops treating up to 70 percent of the world's e-waste, and employing around 100,000 people; electronic waste lines most of the streets and reports indicate that the smell of burning metal and plastic are constantly in the air. The disposal sites recycle 15,000 tons of e-waste on a daily basis. Over 80 per cent of the town's residents make a living off of manually disassembling and disposing e-waste full-time. The residents of Guiyu are known to have the highest reported level of lead and dioxin found in people globally. These high dioxin levels also result in much higher miscarriage rates for women that are pregnant and reports show that over 70 percent of children have high lead levels in their bloodstreams. In 2012, Guiyu authorities published a decree that banned burning of electronic waste as well as soaking electronic waste in sulfuric acid.
Taizhou The Taizhou region of the Zhejiang province is also a major e-waste recycling center. Taizhou's residents are especially vulnerable to the contamination of their large agricultural sector caused by the e-waste sector. Taizhou has been a major site for soil and sediment pollution by toxins generated from e-waste disposal. Residents of Taizhou also have a high dietary intake of heavy metals through rice, vegetable, and water consumption. In 2012, their average intake of heavy metals was 3.7 mg/(day$kg bw), exceeding the FAO tolerable daily intake of 3.6 mg/day$kg bw.
Legislation and regulation
National legislation A variety of environmental legislations and programs have been issued by the Chinese government in order to regulate the electronic product production and e-waste management sectors.
Effective February 1, 2000, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) passed a regulation entitled Notification on Importation of the Seventh Category of Wastes. This regulation prohibits e-waste from being an allowed importation under the seventh category of waste approved by the MEP. On July 1, 2004, Measures on the Administration of Business Certificate on Hazardous Materials required businesses to acquire a license to legally collect, store, or dispose of e-waste. Additionally, previous legislation was revised in 2005 to firmly disallow imports of solid waste from entering China for the purpose of dumping.
In 2008, the MEP passed Administrative Measures for the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Electronic Waste - a set of administrative rules requiring all e-waste treatment enterprises to adopt pollution control techniques and register with local government agencies. Under this act, violators are subject to heavy fines of up to ¥500,000 ($73,000).