The huge profit space in e-waste is obvious, but it is worrying that the lack of strictly regulated recycling methods has caused great harm to the environment and people.

"In this era of deepening economic crisis and rising raw material prices, environmental benefits and opportunities for innovative growth are increasingly linked to resource utilization." "We now need to explore new ways to collect e-waste and improve the efficiency of existing ones," said JanezPotocnik, EU Environment commissioner. JanezPotocnik was commenting on the EU's new e-waste law, which came into force on August 6, 2012. The new EU law is likely to have a huge impact on the recycling of e-waste.

E-waste is becoming a striking wealth, for a long time, Japan has attached great importance to the recycling of e-waste, jumping into a resource country. According to the total amount of recyclable metal stored in Japan and China, the amount of gold that can be recycled in Japan and China is 6,800 tons, more than South Africa, the world's largest gold reserves. The recoverable amount of silver reached 60,000 tons, surpassing Poland, which has the world's largest reserves. The rare metal indium, of which Japan has the world's largest reserves, is running out of resources.

"Electronic waste contains a large number of toxic and harmful chemicals, including heavy metals lead, mercury, cadmium, these heavy metals will affect the human body's central nervous system, blood circulation system, kidney function and so on; The plastic of e-waste contains brominated flame retardants, which will interfere with the human hormonal system; Brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is often used in electronics, release the carcinogen dioxins when burned. These toxins can accumulate in the environment over a long period of time and potentially enter the human body through the food chain." Lai Yun, Greenpeace's pollution campaign director, told reporters in an interview.

Of course, whether these hazards occur is related to the methods and processes of e-waste dismantling.

If the electronic waste is sent to a formal qualified company, to be standardized and scientific treatment, its harm will be greatly reduced, but if the original manual workshop, through pickling, incineration or baking and other ways to deal with, for the extraction of useful materials after the second generation of waste and then waste at will, its harm is very large.

"Enterprises in the dismantling of electronic waste, often for cost considerations, only in the most cost-effective way to extract valuable resources, without taking into account the pollution caused to the environment." Nie Yongfeng, deputy director of the solid waste Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Affairs, believes that this has caused great pollution.

Scientific recycling process and strict and effective treatment supervision are necessary, for this point, Dai Xingyi, director of the Urban Environmental Management Research Center of Fudan University, provides a complete set of regulation and supervision measures - the extended producer responsibility system. Dai Xingyi suggested that electronic manufacturers should set up a production line at the same time as setting up another production line, which is responsible for the dismantling and reuse of recycled materials. He calls it a "vein production line." 'Like the human body, the arteries carry blood to the organs and the veins carry blood back to the heart.'

"The extended producer responsibility system requires manufacturers to recycle their own waste electronic products, so they must form a recycling network through an industry association or through a consortium of companies, and then they can ensure that the waste flow is closed." Dai Xingyi said: "The recycled electronic products, disassembled according to the different circumstances of different treatment: if the parts or good, meet the requirements of the new product, then can be recycled; If the parts are out of date, they can be used to make a second mobile phone and then rented or sold at a low price. If they can't be recycled, they will be shredded and re-entered into the production line as raw materials."

However, the scheme designed by Dai Xingwing has not been widely and effectively adopted. "As far as I know, very few Chinese electronics manufacturers now have the ability to set up a high-level vein production line. If such a vein production line is set up, a high level of disassembly and recycling is achieved, and reused in a very environmentally friendly way, it will undoubtedly increase the cost, but it will be of great benefit to the environment." Dai Xingyi said.

This very environmentally friendly treatment mode, if through some effective system or means to reduce its cost and increase benefits, will certainly stimulate the enthusiasm of more related enterprises.

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