Informal electronic waste recycling: A sector review with special focus on China Xinwen Chi a,⇑ , Martin Streicher-Porte b , Mark Y.L. Wang a , Markus A. Reuter c a Department of Resource Management and Geography, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, 221 Bouverie Street, Carlton, VIC 3010, Australia b Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Technology and Society Laboratory, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland c Outotec Pty Ltd., Melbourne, 12 Kitchen Road, Dandenong, VIC 3175, Australia article info Article history: Received 27 March 2010 Accepted 5 November 2010 Available online 13 December 2010 abstract Informal recycling is a new and expanding low cost recycling practice in managing Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or e-waste). It occurs in many developing countries, including China, where current gaps in environmental management, high demand for second-hand electronic appliances and the norm of selling e-waste to individual collectors encourage the growth of a strong informal recycling sec- tor. This paper gathers information on informal e-waste management, takes a look at its particular man- ifestations in China and identifies some of the main difficulties of the current Chinese approach. Informal e-waste recycling is not only associated with serious environmental and health impacts, but also the sup- ply deficiency of formal recyclers and the safety problems of remanufactured electronic products. Expe- riences already show that simply prohibiting or competing with the informal collectors and informal recyclers is not an effective solution. New formal e-waste recycling systems should take existing informal sectors into account, and more policies need to be made to improve recycling rates, working conditions and the efficiency of involved informal players. A key issue for China’s e-waste management is how to set up incentives for informal recyclers so as to reduce improper recycling activities and to divert more e-waste flow into the formal recycling sector. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or e-waste) in China creates its own particular set of environmental challenges, particularly considering China pro- duces, exports and consumes the largest portion of global electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) (Yang, 2008). E-waste, being one of the largest sources of heavy metals and organic pollutants in mu- nicipal waste and the fastest growing waste stream, has become a serious problem in China and other Asian developing nations (Bertram et al., 2002). These countries not only generate tremen- dous amounts of domestic e-waste due to their fast consumption rates of electrical and electronic (EE) products, but also receive enormous quantities of used information technology (IT) devices from overseas (Brigden et al., 2008). In China, e-waste is largely recycled by the informal sector, where numerous waste recycle workers are hired at extremely low wages applying crude and pol- lutive recycling methods for separation of reusable components and quick recovery of contained metals. These backyard practices often take place under the most primitive circumstances, exposing workers to extensive health dangers (Williams, 2005). Over the past decade China has made great efforts to advocate better e-waste collection and recycling in both public and private sector. There is noticeable increase in domestic and foreign invest- ments into recycling field, accompanied by encouraged transfer of international recycling technologies and western waste manage- ment principles. Recycling industrial parks have been established in several cities with purpose of promoting efficient and environ- mentally-friendly recovery of original and imported metal scraps (Shinkuma and Huong, 2009). Some brand companies in EE industry, e.g. Nokia and Lenovo also took the lead in offering free take-back services of old products to Chinese consumers. At national level, four pilot projects were launched to gain institu- tional and technical experiences in regulation preparation and col- lection network design. Apart from infrastructure build-up and industrial practices, Chinese government has also introduced a set of e-waste management regulations, in response to its speedy e-waste generation and to regulations and actions on EEEs and WEEE in other countries, e.g. Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, partic- ularly the WEEE Directive 1 and the RoHS Directive 2 of the European Union which have substantial impacts on the exports of Chinese EE 0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2010.11.006 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 8344 9317; fax: +61 3 9349 4218. E-mail address: x.chi@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au (X. Chi). 1 Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment. 2 Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Waste Management 31 (2011) 731–742 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman