China profits US$477B in e-waste disposal industry

There is huge space in China market for both e-waste recycling, disposal enterprises and e-waste disposal equipment manufacturers. This year, the profit of China’s e-waste disposal industry has exceeded Rmb3 billion (US$477 billion). It is expected that by 2017, the profit of China’s e-waste disposal industry will exceed Rmb10 billion (US$1.59 billion).

At present, there are over 100 regular e-waste disposal enterprises in China. Main profit modes of China e-waste industry include selling renewable resources acquired by recycling and obtaining government subsidies. E-waste industry is a special renewable resource. Although the pollution is enormous, it is also of relatively high recycling value. For instance, the metal content in computers exceeds 30%, and that in waste printed circuit boards is more considerable. In waste circuit boards, the copper content is up to 20%, which also contain metals such as aluminum and iron as well as trance amounts of rare and noble metals such as gold, silver and platinum.

According to incomplete statistics, the total recycling value of resource recyc

ling industries in major developed countries worldwide is over US$200 billion annually. In terms of the output, 45% of steel, 62% of copper, 22% of aluminum, 40% of lead and 30% of zinc worldwide, are from the recycling of renewable resources. Among them, the vast majorities are obtained from e-waste recycling.

The recycling of e-wastes has pivotal influences on China’s national economy. Seen from the national situation, since the implementation of the “old-for-new policy” of household appliances, waste household appliances recycled are over 60 million sets, which obtains more than 500 thousand tonnes of valuable resources such as metal, plastic and glass through harmless dismantling disposal.