E-waste recycling and disposal processes
E-waste recycling material and financial flows
The e-waste recycling and disposal in China is typically disorganized
at present and the legislation to regulate e-waste recycling has not yet been finalized. The current material and
financial flows of e-waste in China are listed in Figures 4 and 5.
Private individual collectors formed the main channel for ewaste
collection. However, it must be noted that there are also
semi-organized collection networks which exist even though
they do not exclusively collect e-waste. There are some secondhand
appliance markets as well. For example, in Beijing,
the capital of China, a survey suggests that there are approximately
5000 individual collectors and 17 secondhand markets.
These individual collectors do not have business licences
and fixed workshops and they collected all kinds of e-waste.
About 60% of the total discarded e-waste is collected by individual
peddlers (Beijing Morning News 2005). In contrast to
industrialized economies, the consumers are paid by collectors
for old, used and non-working appliances in China.