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Original Research | Open Access

Reveal dynamic flows of regional e-waste: Evidence from a field research

Chonggang Yanga,b, Bingyu Xua,b, Zhikun Zhua,b, Yan Hea,b, Yujia Wanga,b, He Xua, Mo Zhanga,b( )
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
Research Center for Resource, Energy and Environmental Policy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
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Abstract

Electronic waste (e-waste) has increased because of the rapid replacement of electrical and electronic equipment. Owing to the increased emphasis on the dual properties of environmental contamination and metal resources, accurate identification of the e-waste recycling process is crucial. In this study, a product-level material flow analysis (MFA) is performed from a macroscopic social flow of waste TV sets in order to demonstrate the material metabolism of regional e-waste recycling. Previous studies have focused on the estimation of the quantity of e-waste generated or analyzing the overall amount of recycled resource output, the results derived from the estimation may have some unreliability, and our bottom-up research investigates the material flows that occur between the generation, collection and recycling of e-waste. MFA based on questionnaires and field research present accurate quantities and proportions of the recycling process. The results reveal that accelerating the construction of regional e-waste recycling systems and data networks and accurately identifying e-waste source, flow, and destination are required in order to improve resource efficiency toward carbon neutrality.

Keywords

Circular economyDynamic material flowField researchRegional e-waste recycling

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Circular Economy
Volume 3 Issue 2,
June 2024
DOI: 10.1016/j.cec.2024.100086
Cite this article:
Yang C, Xu B, Zhu Z, et al. Reveal dynamic flows of regional e-waste: Evidence from a field research. Circular Economy, 2024, 3(2): 100086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cec.2024.100086

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Received: 28 November 2023
Revised: 14 February 2024
Accepted: 17 February 2024
Published: 03 May 2024
© 2024 The Author(s).

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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