Print this article    Email this article

China switches on
02-JUN-2006

Sustainable WEEE management begins to take steps

Alongside its phenomenal economic growth,
China is facing a surging problem in the management of WEEE. Its electronics
industry must take substantial steps to comply with European legislation or
suffer tremendous losses to exports and international trade. How has the industry
been responding so far? 

Municipal solid waste generation has historically grown in parallel with economic
development. For China, the largest manufacturing country in the world and the
third largest exporter, the impact of rapid economic growth on waste generation
has been significant. Since 1978, domestic production of waste electronic and
electrical equipment (WEEE) has been increasing in parallel with an annual GDP
growth rate of approximately 9%.

More and more Chinese families are acquiring various kinds of electrical and
electronic devices such as televisions, radios and refrigerators. Ownership
of mobile phones has been increasing at a rate of more than 10% each year since
the late 1990s. Since 2003, at least 5 million television sets, 4 million refrigerators
and 6 million washing machines have been sent to landfills in China. We are
arriving at a peak in WEEE production, with generation rates being particularly
high in some developed regions in south-east China.

This article examines what is happening, the solutions being used, and what
can be learned from international experience in WEEE management.

REVIEWING CURRENT PRACTICE

In 2005, the Chinese Government published its own RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous
Substances) and WEEE management legislation, which included an implementation
deadline of 1 July this year.

The new legislation covers a much broader scope than its European equivalent.
All the components involved in the electronics supply chain ¿ from manufacturers
and distributors to importers and retailers ¿ have to undertake individual responsibilities.
Failure to comply with the new law can result in penalties for any of the participants
within the supply chain. Moreover, the new law requires every electronic or
electrical product entering China to be first tested by an authorized and certified
Chinese institution or laboratory.

`China¿s RoHS and WEEE legislation covers a much broader scope than its EU equivalent¿

Illegal recycling workshops are spreading the problem

Currently most WEEE in China is being recycled illegally in private workshops.
These workshops collect household WEEE on a regular basis, disassemble the devices,
reuse specific components where possible, re-sell parts such as glass and plastics,
and extract heavy metals in an acid tank. The remaining materials are discarded
either illegally or landfilled with MSW. Such private workshops can make large
profits in a relatively short period of time. The incomplete nature of current
WEEE legislation and high unemployment rates make it difficult to stop this
activity, particularly in rural areas. The workers in these workshops are normally
from rural areas and are poorly educated. They are unaware that WEEE contains
a lot of hazardous substances, such as lead, chromium and mercury, which can
cause serious health risks. Furthermore, toxic chemicals in leachate from landfills
that contain discarded WEEE can also cause significant environmental dangers.

Positive steps in and around Shanghai

During the summer of 2005, students from Shanghai Tongji University initiated
a public awareness campaign on WEEE management. They found that there was a
general lack of awareness of the need to recycle items such as mobile phones.
Steps are being taken to remedy this situation and new facilities using technology
from Japan and Europe are emerging to offer enhanced processing capacity.

Suzhou Tonghe Resource Integrated Treatment Co., Ltd (Tonghe) from Japan was
established in 2003 to process all the WEEE produced in the city of Suzhou,
80 km north-west of Shanghai. Currently this facility uses wet treatment technology
to extract gold from WEEE, obtaining 10 kg per month with 99.99% purity. Because
of the high profits obtained, Tonghe decided to invest more in this technology
this year. A new line incorporating dry treatment technology will soon be introduced
to extract other metals.

Another WEEE treatment company was established in the city of Wuxi (120 km
north-west of Shanghai), and its plant went into operation in March last year.
It is the first domestic enterprise to treat WEEE and will handle 500,000 tonnes
each year.

Corporate power

Joint ventures and large domestic enterprises produce roughly 75% of China¿s
electronics exports. Most of these companies will integrate recycling strategies
in their short- and long-term environmental planning. Technical support can
also be found in parent companies which are likely to have a greater knowledge
base ¿ especially those with foreign investors, who may have experience with
international legislation in this sector.

European experience The European Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE Directive) aims to stimulate the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes. The WEEE Directive is complemented by a Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. Examples of implementation GERMANY As early as September 1994, Germany published legislation on cleaner technology and solid waste treatment. There is good scope for China and other countries to learn from the implementation of the German legislation. Most recently, in response to the new EU directives on WEEE and RoHS, the German government and industry decided to establish a WEEE Register (a central co-ordination agency named Elektro-Altgeraete-Register) which is funded and managed by industry, but is authorized to act as a government agency. DENMARK In Denmark, over 75% of WEEE is recycled. This corresponds to 14 kg of WEEE per capita per year, which is far higher than the European average of 4 kg per capita per year. To date, recycling of WEEE has been managed by Danish municipalities rather than the relevant product manufacturers, with the WEEE collected via municipal schemes financed through municipal fees. Under the new Directive, producer responsibility will take effect and the waste management costs will be included in the prices of these products. Furthermore, more products will be subject to separate treatment. A panel of stakeholders (the Retail Trade Panel) has been appointed to strengthen initiatives in this field. NORWAY Two non-profit waste management companies (owned by the National Trade Organization) are responsible for managing all consumers WEEE in Norway, a country with over five years of full-scale WEEE recycling experience. Some important changes have been made to its national WEEE legislation from 2004 to focus on enhancing transparency in individual/collective producer systems and to introduce a producer register. The impact of European legislation on China According to Xinhua News, China¿s electronics exports to the EU totalled US$380 billion in 2005, or roughly 30% of the country¿s total exports. The impact of the new EU directives on WEEE and RoHS on the Chinese industry is significant. Based on the World Trade Organization¿s 2005 world trade report, China already suffers an annual loss of tens of billions of dollars in global exports due to standard non-tariff barriers. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, at least $37 billion will be lost in international trade due to these two new Directives, affecting $5.6 billion worth of Chinese exports to the EU.

Motorola China Co., Ltd offers a good example of extended producer responsibility.
The company collected approximately 3 tonnes of mobile phones and accessories
nationwide in 2004; however, with the high growth rate in mobile phone purchases
in rural areas of China, collection activities cannot be allowed to slow down.

In July 2005, Suning Electronics Group Co., Ltd and TCL Group Co., Ltd also
announced a joint pilot programme to offer consumers 200¿500 RMB (US$25¿63)
for their old television sets when they purchase any TCL brand television sets
in any of the Suning department stores. All the discarded television sets collected
will be transported to sites appointed for decontamination processing.

While these examples offer positive news, companies that do not have foreign
investments or prominent domestic branding are facing problems. These small-
and mediumsized manufacturing enterprises are confronting great pressures and
most of them are finding themselves having to withdraw from the market. They
cannot move quickly enough to understand and respond to international legislation,
and small profit margins with high recycling fees are forcing them out of business.

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR CHINESE WEEE MANAGEMENT

There is a great saying that: `if you don¿t know where the right direction
is, each step taken now would be correct¿. This maxim applies to China¿s RoHS
and WEEE management legislation, which should be implemented as soon as possible.

Demonstration projects could begin at a local level, with large electrical
and electronic equipment manufacturers that have a good reputation. These could
become `model companies¿ for others to follow. Such companies normally employ
a large number of local workers, offering enhanced potential for educating communities
within a single enterprise. WEEE management seminars should be held between
regions and cities nationwide. Positive results from one company could be useful
for other similar companies via study tours and handing out brochures.

Implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems is essential
for managing WEEE legally on a large scale. More and more companies benefit
from this type of strategy, and there is great scope for larger companies with
foreign investors to implement pilot programmes. Take, for instance, the city
of Shenzhen in south China, neighbouring Hong Kong. This city has attracted
a lot of international investment since 1980 and the training of employees there
in response to the EU WEEE and ROHS directives became a very hot issue in 2005.

An efficient WEEE management chain can be established gradually as components
from WEEE become increasingly used as raw materials for other manufacturers.
This will be a winwin- win situation, in which the cost of recycling is reduced
or eliminated and the cost for raw materials for the product manufacturer decreases.
Furthermore, the environmental benefit of saving finite resources is also significant.

Improving the city infrastructure

Replacing illegal recycling workshops with professional treatment facilities
is an important step. Initially, economic incentives should be created for those
developing WEEE treatment factories. A certain percentage of workers previously
employed illegally should be taken on by the new company, possibly with training
programmes sponsored by local governments.

A city or area reuse centre could be established for better sharing the WEEE
'resources' between municipalities and enterprises. Detailed information on
material flow could be uploaded to a relevant website or disseminated via governmental
announcements. This information should be easily accessible and free-of-charge.
Local citizens could also trade household WEEE on a regular basis, thus supporting
the development of a waste minimization philosophy in society.

Public awareness

It is important to raise public awareness and involvement. This can be done
gradually through the media and public announcements supported by the government.
In this way, personal consumption style can be made more sustainable, in parallel
with manufacturer behaviour. Achieving this may take a long time, but it is
vital for China to become cleaner and more environmentally sustainable.

Jingjing Ma is Project & Development Manager at
COWI Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd.

e-mail: jjm@cowi.cn

web: www.cowi.cn

 

 

---

---