E-waste recycling in Beijing and the impact of China's WEEE directive: competition or collaboration between informal recyclers and authorized recycling enterprises?
This thesis traces the afterlives of used electronics after they are discarded by household
consumers in Beijing and examines the roles of informal and formal sectors in discarded
electronics recycling through following the commodity chain. In contrast to most
mainstream narratives about China’s e-waste recycling, which almost all conclude with the
need to crack down on the current informal e-waste sector and establish a new e-waste
collection network controlled by government authorized processing facilities, I argue that
the current informal sector has a sophisticated collection and reuse network and has found
ways to collaborate with the formal e-waste recycling companies since 2012 when China’s
WEEE directive and funding mechanism (Administrative Measures on Levy and Use of
the Fund for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Treatment) came into
enforcement. I establish this argument by showing how specific e-waste flows have
changed and are currently managed between informal collectors to formal companies in
Beijing. Prior to China’s WEEE enforcement, discarded electronics in Beijing had been
collected, repaired, reused or dismantled by informal sector entrepreneurs since the 1990s.
Following the implementation of the WEEE funding mechanism, certain appliances (in
particular CRTs and washing machines) collected by the informal sector have gradually
flowed to the formal e-waste disposal companies in Beijing and neighboring provinces. I
conclude that the relationship between informal and formal sectors in handling China’s
domestic discarded electronics is currently more one of collaboration than competition.
Other important related findings include:
1) Informal e-waste collection and reuse businesses have been a vibrant part of
environmental and economic activities in Beijing’s urbanization over the last 30
years. That sector’s salvaging of appliances for repair and reuse has extended the
useful lives of tens of millions of electronic appliances and thereby made major
contributions to resource conservation and sustainability.
2) The current ad hoc division of tasks, with the informal sector managing used
electronics collection and sorting and formal companies managing end-of-life
dismantling, has both economic and environmental benefits. By contrast, any
attempts by formal e-waste companies to compete with the informal sector over
residential collection have failed, and the formal companies remain almost
comically ignorant regarding the economics and skills required for
collection/sorting.
3) The biggest obstacles facing the informal discarded electronics sector are urban
planning and policing policies that make their working and living conditions
unstable, economically precarious, and at times dangerous. In this way, Beijing
municipal policy undermines a sector that contributes greatly to resource
conservation and pollution reduction of pollution.
4) The discarded electronic trade provides a clear picture of current trends in appliance
manufacturing that are accelerating habits of disposal which are counter to
environmental sustainability. A key policy suggestion derived from my research is
that, if the government’s aim is to limit resource waste and maximize environmental sustainability, it should formulate standards requiring OEMs to design longer
lasting appliances paired with policies incentivizing repair and reuse.
5) My research reveals that trade in imported used electronics into China is not as
massive as many reports have claimed, but it is significant for particular types of
devices and products. It is crucial to note that the flow of products is not simply
from OECD countries into China; significant flows move out of China and into
other countries, including ones in Africa.
6) Authorized e-waste recycling companies’ supplies mainly rely on the informal
sector’s work. My research reveals that their relationships are more cooperation
than competition. More and more would-be dismantled e-waste is sent to the formal
sector after collected by the informal sector