Abstract
Behind the hot topic in the digital world, there are tens of thousands of electronic products, and the characteristics of the rapid elimination and update of electronic products have triggered the unexpected consequence of a surge in electronic waste. These e-wastes have not been properly disposed of in most areas, and have had serious impacts on human health and the natural environment. There is an urgent need to rethink the e-waste issue, reassess the electronics industry, and reinventing the e-waste recycling system in order to ensure the interests of the industry, consumers, activists, human health, and the environment.
Besides, e-waste also presents some opportunities, and the incredible opportunities that e-waste breeds are also consistent with the global transition to environmentally sustainable development and shaping a circular economy future that benefits everyone. Using the current state of disposal of used mobile phones in China as an example, this paper investigates the future of e-waste recycling and utilization.
Introduction of E-waste
The increased use of electronics and digital technology has greatly increased, bringing many conveniences to people’s work and lives, but it has also resulted in an unintended consequence in the form of an increase in e-waste. Although it is difficult to predict annual electronics production, the number of connected devices alone far outnumbers the world’s population. With the cost of electronics dropping dramatically and consumer demand rising.
E-waste is now the world’s fastest growing waste, and some types of e-waste are even growing exponentially. The United Nations has referred to it as a “tsunami of e-waste.” Globally, society only properly disposes of about 20% of e-waste, with little clear data recorded for the remaining 80%, the majority of which ends up in landfills or is disposed of by unqualified individuals (Huang, 2019).
This historic tipping point will create unprecedented opportunities for policymakers, businesses, and activists worldwide. It is time to reinvent the e-waste recycling system, to create an effective system that replaces the linear economy (LE) with the circular economy (CE), which emerged from a general consensus among scientists, industrialists, and government and financial sector actors to rethink how human waste is managed and to re-establish a paradigm that mimics nature, waste recycling, and value preservation. In addition, the name LE is used as an antonym for CE. The terms LE and CE are combined to form a comparative definition of two economic models: the efficient and unsustainable LE and the efficient and sustainable CE (Mika and Ncibi, 2019). Furthermore, in the short term, e-waste remains a valuable resource that is largely underutilized; almost all of it can be recycled, and the amount is growing. Extraction of resources from e-waste is more cost-effective and uses less energy than extraction of metal ores from the ground.
Furthermore, in addition to domestically generated e-waste, more waste from around the world will be imported into China. It is estimated that 50-80% of global e-waste is imported into Asia, either legally or illegally, with China receiving 90% of this (Kong et al., 2012) .More importantly, China’s e-waste problem will be severe due to the country’s large population, which means a high rate of electronics usage and e-waste generation. As a result, in this issue of the journal, I will discuss the current situation, recycling, and utilization of e-waste in China.
Harm of E-waste
Although e-waste is not considered hazardous waste, it does contain significant amounts of heavy metals and other harmful and toxic components such as PCBs, lead, and mercury. The harmful components in it will pose serious hazards to our living environment and human health if discarded at random or recycled unreasonably. Due to the very slow biodegradation of harmful components, direct incineration produces harmful gases and causes air pollution; as a municipal landfill, it frequently accumulates in soil or groundwater and plants and enters through water bodies, the food chain, and the human body, putting human health at risk. The manufacture of smartphones, for example, necessitates the use of a variety of chemical raw materials, many of which are toxic to humans, such as the lithium element found in lithium batteries used in mobile phones.
E-waste can be toxic and non-biodegradable, and it can accumulate in the environment, soil, air, water, and living organisms over time, causing harm to people’s health. The improper management of e-waste endangers the health of women and children in particular.
Second, e-waste necessitates the use of numerous resources. Without appropriate decomposition, recycling, and reuse measures, it will deplete the earth’s resources and place a significant burden on the development of future generations. However, environmental organizations, businesses, and governments frequently ignore the impact of e-waste while focusing solely on the consumption of fossil energy and emissions from heavy industrial enterprises. However, this does not mean that the impact of e-waste can be overlooked. With the rapid expansion of technology companies, the impact of e-waste will become increasingly significant. If we do not prevent it and develop strategies in advance, we will have to wait until the impact of e-waste on humans and the global environment is known. It will be too late to address the irreversible negative consequences.
Utilization of E-waste
The various chemical resources contained in smartphones can be hazardous to one’s health and the environment, but by recycling them, one can reduce the exploitation of the earth’s nonrenewable resources.
However, recycling costs a lot of money. There is a need for a cost-effective and environmentally friendly recycling process, which may be considered a real need in the future (Masuduzzaman & Alauddin, 2018).
However, despite the challenges we face, the only way forward is to make full use of e-waste. The rapid advancement of science, technology, and information technology has resulted in a greater demand for mineral and chemical resources. Recovery technology and the circular economy will provide a solid foundation for the advancement of science and technology. In short, we cannot avoid and must focus on overcoming the current problem of how to use e-waste in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner.
Categories and type of E-waste
In general, e-waste refers to any product that has reached the end of its useful life, as well as its components with plugs, wires, or batteries, and includes a wide range of specific products from a variety of sources, including households, businesses, and governments.
Consumer demand for electronics is increasing. Electronics, like fast fashion and fast food, is a fast-changing fad whose revenues rely on selling the latest products at increasingly low prices. Affordable prices, in particular, present numerous opportunities for developing countries, particularly as mobile payments have greatly increased financial inclusion and opened up new avenues for development. Second, high-tech product upgrades are accelerating, with the lifespan of a computer having been reduced from 10 years to four years. However, all of these electronics, including smartphones, tablets, and cameras, will eventually be discarded. Household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens, and stereos are constantly updated, rendering unused products obsolete. This will result in a large amount of e-waste, but the mobile phone has the shortest product cycle and is the first to become obsolete(Qian, 2010). In this article, I will look in depth at e-waste, using used smartphones as an example.
A plastic casing, an LCD screen, a mobile phone circuit board, a lithium battery, a keypad, and other components make up the majority of mobile phones. A mobile phone’s total mass is made up of 30% metallic materials, including the precious metal gold. An average of more than 0.01 grams of gold was consumed per phone produced in China many years ago. Each tonne of discarded mobile phones contains approximately 100 grams of gold (Wu, 2011).
While there are many different types of e-waste, smartphones are currently the most up-to-date e-waste in China. Because of China’s rapid growth in mobile software and technology companies, it is now impossible to live without a mobile phone for basic functions like electronic payments, online shopping, food delivery, and purchasing train and plane tickets. As a result of widespread and intensive use, mobile phone obsolescence has increased. As a result, in this magazine, I’ve chosen smartphones as an example of e-waste recycling.
Broken / Used smart phones status in China
The number of mobile phone users in China has skyrocketed. People’s demand for mobile phone features and appearance has increased as technology has advanced and the market has become more competitive, further shortening the mobile phone replacement cycle; the emergence of smartphones has accelerated the upgrading of mobile phone products. The introduction of smartphones has accelerated the evolution of mobile phone products. The Chinese mobile phone replacement cycle has been gradually reduced from 3-5 years to 18 months (Wang, Ma and Ma, 2013). The rapid growth of the mobile phone industry, as well as the increased replacement of mobile phones, has resulted in a massive backlog of used mobile phones. A large number of used mobile phones have not been effectively disposed of due to limitations in consumer attitudes, government policies, recycling channels, and models, and the recycling rate of used mobile phones in China is far below that of developed Western countries. China’s stock of discarded mobile phones has surpassed one billion units, but the recycling rate is only 2%, significantly lower than the 30%-40% in North America (Ni, Qian and Yang, 2013).
Reasons why broken smart phones is not well processed in China
In China, there are currently four main methods for disposing of used mobile phones: paid recycling, free recycling, idling at home, and direct disposal. Free recycling primarily refers to free recycling activities initiated jointly by major mobile phone manufacturers and communication operators, such as the “Green Box Environmental Protection Programme” launched in 2005 by Nokia, Motorola, and China Mobile (Zhu, 2002); recycling mobile phones in some form of trade, such as recyclers organizing trade-in activities at a discount. Unrecycled used mobile phones are typically discarded or disposed of at home.
The reason for China’s low recycling rate of used mobile phones is the mobile phone recycling system’s flaws, particularly the irregularities of the second-hand mobile phone trading market, the difficulties in the development of formal electronic waste recycling and treatment enterprises, and the high pollution caused by the manual dismantling of mobile phones. These issues have resulted in several unresolved “quadrants” in China’s used mobile phone recycling industry. The reasons for this include a variety of factors such as stakeholder consciousness and the material basis for industrial development. The specifics are as follows.
- 1.Some people have a low level of environmental awareness. People in China rarely think about recycling e-waste; among them, the willingness to recycle used mobile phones is even lower than the overall level of e-waste. In some cases, people leave used smartphones at home or give them as gifts to relatives and friends, while 3% of consumers consider used phones to be general solid waste and choose to dispose of them in an inappropriate manner, such as throwing them away or incinerating them (Zhu, 2002). This could be due to some consumers’ lack of environmental awareness, as they are unaware of the threat to human health posed by used mobile phone radiation or the environmental hazards of incineration and disposal. It can be seen that consumers’ lack of awareness about recycling used mobile phones has had a significant impact on the recycling rate of mobile phones.
2.Concerns about personal privacy. In China, privacy has long been a contentious issue. Because of the rapid growth of large internet companies in China since the twenty-first century, the lack of laws and regulations governing the protection of personal private information online has resulted in these companies frequently profiting from users’ private information. This has resulted in significant privacy concerns among Chinese residents, particularly electronics users, and, as a result, a deep distrust of used mobile phone recyclers, with users fearing that these companies will steal and sell their personal information.
- 3.Inadequate recycling incentives for smartphone manufacturers and other related businesses. Mobile phone manufacturers, telecom operators, mobile phone sellers, used mobile phone dealers, mobile phone repairers, mobile phone dismantlers, and others are among those responsible for recycling used mobile phones. One of the major reasons for China’s low recycling rate is the lack of clear regulations on legal and financial responsibilities, as well as corresponding rights and obligations, in the mobile phone recycling process. In general, mobile phone manufacturers and other related enterprises have a thorough understanding of the product structure, material selection, and manufacturing process of mobile phone products, and are thus capable of effectively completing the dismantling and disposal of mobile phone products, thereby reducing the generation of environmental pollutants. At the same time, the wave makes efficient use of its resources. However, due to flaws in systems, laws, and so on, mobile phone manufacturers lack incentives to recycle mobile phones, as well as insufficient financial incentives.
4.Inadequate policies and systems. In recent years, the Chinese government has become aware of the harmful effects of e-waste and has taken proactive steps to promote electronic product recycling. Even though the Chinese government has worked hard to develop policies for recycling used and end-of-life electronic products, there are still gaps in specific policy implementation, supervision and management, and supporting support.
Due to a lack of policy support, the development of formal mobile phone recycling enterprises has struggled to form a large-scale recycling system capable of addressing the issue of environmental pollution in the process of recycling and reusing large-scale mobile phones.” In 2017, the Beijing municipal government, for example, implemented a subsidy system for recycling used and end-of-life electronic products. However, many businesses that recycle e-waste claim that there is no specific government department in charge of implementing it and that they do not know where to get subsidies.
What should we do to deal with used phones and other E-waste
The secondary use is more effective, as it keeps the material at a high level of utilization. The global market for used smartphones is currently expanding rapidly, particularly at the high end of the market. Of course, there is still much room for growth in this market. To capitalize on this opportunity, electronics must urgently transition to a circular economy.
Furthermore, the recycling industry requires improvement; in some cases, the quality of recycled materials is insufficient for use in new electronics. To that end, many countries have set goals, such as China’s goal of making 20% of all new products from recycled materials by 2025. Post-consumer recycling of electrical and electronic products is insufficient to address the issue; society must benefit from well-designed, long-lasting products. Equipment that has been properly maintained, repaired, and refurbished will have a longer lifespan. In some jurisdictions, it is also a legal requirement that businesses be prepared to repair the equipment they sell. Used electronics are worth more than individual parts, which are worth more than materials, implying that reusing electronics and collecting parts is a valuable opportunity.
For recycling, products are designed with reusability, durability, and ultimate safety in mind. While many companies are already fully committed to not producing waste in the electronics value chain, the remainder is working to design products that do not contain hazardous materials. To create an open playing field for collaboration, these experiences must be shared across the industry. Durable design contributes to electronic devices being recycled for longer periods. Product configurations should consider end-of-life issues and promote disassembly and reuse. A systematic approach to redesigning electronics’ life cycles for the circular economy can also add value to the electronics circular economy system. In this regard, in today’s culture of short-term profit, we must look to the future and live in harmony with other beings and nature, rather than focusing solely on economic benefits.
Only a few countries have developed uniform methods for measuring e-waste at the moment. Many precious metals, such as gold, copper, and nickel, as well as rare materials of military value, such as indium and palladium, can be recovered, recycled, and reused as raw materials for new products in e-waste. Metal recovery is difficult because an electronic product can contain over 1,000 different substances. Although e-waste accounts for only 20% of all solid waste, it accounts for 70% of all hazardous waste entering landfills. In complex electronics such as smartphones, more than 60 elements from the periodic table can be found, many of which can technically be recycled.
As a digital designer, I wanted to use this magazine or a series of artworks to remind the world of the importance of e-waste and to get people to think about the evolution of technology, electronics, and e-waste.
For example, through an art installation, I would like to raise people’s awareness of e-waste. I would use a large number of used mobile phones or other e-waste to pile up other items that are closely related to people’s lives, giving the impression that they are inextricably linked to e-waste. Then, for example, I would compile a list of photos of people who have been harmed by hazardous chemicals in e-waste as a result of poor recycling practices, and create a photo album or video clip to bring more attention to the issue of e-waste disposal regulations.
Conclusion
Although there are still many serious issues with e-waste disposal, a circular economy for the electronics and e-waste industries can be achieved and could even create millions of jobs around the world if developed properly. As the recycling of e-waste grows, there may be some low-wage, low-skilled jobs available.
However, due to the large number of available jobs, this will change over time. In my opinion, developing e-waste recycling technology based on high-tech industries will not only lead to the development of new industries, but will also solve environmental problems. The system, for example, will necessitate the hiring of new designers, circular economists, municipal recycling specialists, e-services workers, and so on. In short, the electronics industry has a promising future.
Finally, while the future of e-waste recycling and utilization looks promising, it is still a problem that is frequently overlooked. Even as ordinary people, we can help to promote the future of technology and electronics by paying more attention to e-waste, the environment, the health of workers in electronics factories, and sustainable development.