Helping companies in China reduce and recycle 50% of e-waste by 2025, from smartphones to medical machinery
来源:World Economic Forum;发表于:2021-08-22;人气指数:413
Helping companies
in China reduce and recycle 50% of e-waste by 2025, from smartphones to medical
machinery
https://www.weforum.org/our-impact/from-smartphones-to-medical-machinery-helping-chinese-companies-recycle-electronics/
Workers
dismantle used television sets at a recycling plant in Neijiang, Sichuan
province.
Image: REUTERS/Stringer
We generate 53 million metric tonnes of
e-waste each year. The World Economic Forum's Circular Electronics in
China project is working to change that.
The impact.
When you upgrade
to a new smartphone, can you be confident the technical components of the old
phone are recycled?
Since 2017 the World
Economic Forum has worked with partners to launch and deliver a multistakeholder
project, Circular Electronics in China. The project was
formed as a collaboration platform between industry, government and academia to
reach the Chinese government’s ambitious circular economy targets of recycling
50% of e-waste by 2025 and including 20% of recycled content in new products.
In the past
year, partners have undertaken research on mobile phones, data centre servers,
and the remanufacturing of medical imaging equipment.
Workshops and
seminars with technical teams at 13 companies in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen,
Guangzhou, and Jiangmen have engaged manufacturers on how to increase the use
of recycled materials in product design. Other sessions educated public health
administrations and medical institutions on the renovation and remanufacturing
of medical equipment.
The working
groups’ research, including on the administrative difficulty of moving
materials out of special economic zones for recycling, subsequently led to a
change in policy, as part of the Chinese government’s drive to build a more
circular economy.
For medical
equipment and for data centres, for instance, there is strong commitment among
stakeholders to take the work forward, including setting up a remanufacturing
hub in Hainan province to extend the life of medical equipment.
In just a few
short years, more than 30 Chinese and international companies have been
connected with the project and are disseminating the findings of the research
through training, education, and support, ensuring the project’s ambitious
e-waste targets are achieved.
Source: A New
Circular Vision for Electronics, Time for a Global Reboot
What’s the challenge?
We recycle just
20% of the more than 53 million metric tonnes of e-waste generated globally
each year, according to the Global
E-waste Monitor.
This is a
challenge and a missed opportunity. Experts estimate that materials
in global e-waste are worth $62 billion per year. That value currently sits
untapped in landfills.
Materials in
e-waste – including copper, rare earths, and cobalt – could also be vital in
the transition to renewable energy. In China alone, Forum research finds that
280 million end-of-life mobile phones enter people’s household drawers each
year – not to be recycled. This material could find new life as a clean, green
resource that reduces waste while tackling emissions.
Creating a
system that can grasp this circular opportunity requires forging public private
collaborations between governments, businesses and civil society. These
stakeholders play important roles in shaping systems that eliminate waste and
ensuring goods aren’t simply discarded once they are made and distributed.
To scale change,
China’s participation and insight is especially vital from a manufacturing
perspective. China is the centre of the world’s electronics supply chains,
producing 70% of the world’s mobile phones.
Our approach.
The
Circular Electronics in China project was launched in 2017 as part of the
Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Global Public Goods, along with
partners Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and the Danish
International Development Agency (Danida).
The
project brought key stakeholders together from the public and private sectors
to discuss the barriers to moving to a circular economy for electronics and
undertook baseline research with China’s top technical University
Tsinghua to better understand the current recycling system in the country.
Following this,
the Forum created three working groups, each with a specific focus, to
implement circular models for mobile phones, data centre servers and high-end
medical imaging equipment.
Working groups
were led in collaboration with the China Association of Circular Economy (CACE)
and China National Resource Recycling Association. They also partnered with the
biggest names in the industry, including: 360 Tong Cheng Bang, All Things Renew
Group (Ai Hui Shou), DELL, GE, GEM, HPE, Huawei, Huirong, Huishoubao, JD, Oppo,
Xiaomi, Philips, TES-AMM, Siemens, and United Imaging.
Each working
group created a report which presented an industry strategy and set of policy
recommendations for transitioning to a circular economy. The results were
shared with decision makers in both business and policy.
How can you get involved?
In 2020, PACE
worked with more than 200 experts from over 100 organisations to develop action
agendas for electronics, plastics, food, textiles and capital equipment. The
working groups included representatives from developing countries, such as
Ghana, Rwanda, Mexico and Colombia.
If your
organization is working on circular economy approaches, the Forum invites you
to share your interest to collaborate via these links.