Urban Mining of E‑Waste is Becoming More Cost-Effective Than Virgin Mining

Stocks of virgin-mined materials utilized in linear economic flows continue to present enormous challenges. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams, and threatens to grow into a global problem of unmanageable proportions. An effective form of management of resource recycling and environmental improvement is available, in the form of extraction and purification of precious metals taken from waste streams, in a process known as urban mining. In this work, we demonstrate utilizing real cost data from e-waste processors in China that ingots of pure copper and gold could be recovered from e-waste streams at costs that are comparable to those encountered in virgin mining of ores. Our results are confined to the cases of copper and gold extracted and processed from e-waste streams made up of recycled TV sets, but these results indicate a trend and potential if applied across a broader range of e-waste sources and metals extracted. If these results can be extended to other metals and countries, they promise to have positive impact on waste disposal and mining activities globally, as the circular economy comes to displace linear economic pathways

Dynamic Stocks and Flows Analysis of Bisphenol A (BPA) in China: 2000–2014

Bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic organic chemical, is creating a new category of ecological and human health challenges due to unintended leakage. Effectively managing the use and leakage of BPA can benefit from an understanding of the anthropogenic BPA cycles (i.e., the size of BPA flows and stocks). In this work, we provide a dynamic analysis of the anthropogenic BPA cycles in China for 2000–2014. We find that China’s BPA consumption has increased 10-fold since 2000, to ∼3 million tonnes/year. With the increasing consumption, China’s in-use BPA stock has increased 500-fold to 14.0 million tonnes (i.e., 10.2 kg BPA/capita). It is unclear whether a saturation point has been reached, but in 2004–2014, China’s in-use BPA stock has been increasing by 0.8 kg BPA/capita annually. Electronic products are the biggest contributor, responsible for roughly one-third of China’s in-use BPA stock. Optical media (DVD/VCD/CDs) is the largest contributor to China’s current End-of-Life (EoL) BPA flow, totaling 0.9 million tonnes/year. However, the EoL BPA flow due to e-waste will increase quickly, and will soon become the largest EoL BPA flow. The changing quantities and sources of EoL BPA flows may require a shift in the macroscopic BPA management strategies

Future e-waste scenarios

This paper is published by the StEP Initiative, UNU ViE-SCYCLE, and UNEP IETC. THE STEP INITIATIVE The Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative is a network of e-waste experts and a multi-stakeholder platform for designing strategies that address all dimensions of electronics in an increasingly digitized world. The independent Initiative applies an integrated and science-rooted approach to create salient solutions to global e-waste challenges throughout the entire lifecycle of electronics. UNU ViE-SCYCLE The Sustainable Cycles (SCYCLE) Programme is hosted by the United Nations University Vice Rectorate (UNU ViE) in Europe in Bonn, Germany. SCYCLE’s mission is to promote sustainable societies, and focuses its activities on the development of sustainable production, consumption, and disposal patterns for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), as well as for other ubiquitous goods. SCYCLE leads the global e-waste discussion and advances sustainable e-waste management strategies based on life-cycle thinking. UNEP IETC The International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) is a branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), located in Osaka, Japan, and works with the collection and dissemination of information on environmentally sound technologies with a focus on waste management

Chilling Prospect: Climate Change Effects of Mismanaged Refrigerants in China

The global community has responded to the dual threats of ozone depletion and climate change from refrigerant emissions (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons, HFCs) in refrigerators and air conditioners (RACs) by agreeing to phase out the production of the most damaging chemicals and replacing them with substitutes. Since these refrigerants are “banked” in products during their service life, they will continue to impact our environment for decades to come if they are released due to mismanagement at the end of life. Addressing such long-term impacts of refrigerants requires a dynamic understanding of the RACs’ life cycle, which was largely overlooked in previous studies. Based on field surveys and a dynamic model, we reveal the lingering ozone depletion potential (ODP) and significant global warming potential (GWP) of scrap refrigerants in China, the world’s largest producer (62%) and consumer (46%) of RACs in 2015, which comes almost entirely from air conditioners rather than refrigerators. If the use and waste management of RACs continue with the current trend, the total GWP of scrap refrigerants in China will peak by 2025 at a level of 135.2 ± 18.9 Mt CO₂e (equal to approximately 1.2% ± 0.2% of China’s total greenhouse gas emissions or the national total of either The Netherlands and Czech Republic in 2015). Our results imply an urgent need for improving the recycling and waste management of RACs in China