Located in Huangpu District in downtown Shanghai, East Street is narrow and shabby compared to its glitzy neighbour, Fuxing Road. But what makes it famous amongst locals is its junk market, which takes up the whole street. For 20 years, East Street has been the gathering site of a plethora of small booths selling second-hand home appliances; during peak hours, it is all hustle and bustle. Junk markets like East Street and peddlers wandering the streets and lanes collecting used home appliances, are familiar scenes in all Chinese cities. For consumers in China, it is clear where to go or whom to ask when it comes to discarding home appliances: e-flea markets or wandering e-waste collectors. The rocketing income level of Chinese people and the constant drop in prices of electrical home appliances is accelerating replacement rates of household appliances. Consumers, especially those in urban cities, tend to discard their out-of-date home appliances even when they are still working well. Alongside the rapid growth in the number of electrical devices owned per capita, the volume of electrical waste products disposed annually has also shown a steady increase since 2003, and will reach its peak in 2014. As a peculiar product of people’s daily lives and economic activities, electronic waste, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), contains hazardous elements which can be harmful to the environment and people, like lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, brominated flame retardants and FREON. As a result, traditional solid waste disposal methods such as burial and incineration, etc., are unsuitable for WEEE. It is for this very reason that WEEE is regarded as hazardous waste in other countries in the world and its disposal is strictly controlled. Yet, the metal contained in WEEE makes it more valuable than regular household wastes. For example, one tonne of waste from any kind of circuit board contains about 130 kilograms of copper, 20 kilograms of tin, and 0.45 kilograms of gold. According to the current gold price, 0.45 kilograms of gold is valued at USD 13,000. If steel recovered from waste home appliances could be used as a substitute for primary steel obtained through the conventional sources of mining, transportation, and smelting, up to 97 per cent of mine offal, 90 per cent of raw material loss, 86 per cent of air pollution, 76 per cent of water pollution, 74 per cent of energy loss, and 40 per cent of water consumption could be prevented. What makes it even more attractive is that steel recycled from WEEE shares a similar performance to that of primary steel. It is therefore not surprising that many view electronic waste as a true mine of wealth. To read the rest of this article, please visit BusinessForum China at www.bfchina.de.
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