China's electronic waste recycling now improved with stricter, environment-friendly regulations. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Chinese government takes steps in transforming environmentally harmful electronic waste management into an eco-friendly one.
In 2013, CNN reported how the United Nations dubbed China as the electronic wastebasket of the world.
Also known as "e-waste," trash from electronic devices such as televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, and desktop computers were "harvested" in a Chinese township known as Guiyu.
Located in the Guangdong province, family workshops in Guiyu have been working with e-waste since technology gave birth of TV sets and air conditioners.
According to China Daily, thousands of people in the township used to harvest metals and minerals from discarded appliances and devices.
Citing township head Lin Qiurong, the outlet revealed that Guiyu's e-waste industry used to 450,000 tons of copper and around 20 metric tons of gold annually.
While business was indeed booming, authorities saw the harmful effects of the poorly equipped workshops and unskilled laborers to the environment as well as the workers' health.
"Many workshops discharged untreated acid wastewater directly into the rivers," Guiyu Recycling Economic and Industrial Zone deputy director Zheng Jinxiong revealed.
Because of this, China released stricter regulations on e-waste management which entails a comprehensive inspection of the locality and implements monitoring of the entire recycling process and the dismantling industry.
"Via the regulations, we declared war on the dismantling of e-waste, until all the family workshops moved into the industrial zone, and were transformed into environmentally friendly outfits," Lin told China Daily.
From housing over 5,000 small workshops in 2012, Guiyi is now the host to some 1,400 well-trained dismantling facilities that have been consolidated into 29 joint-venture companies.
"Guiyu currently processes around 400,000 tons of discarded e-waste (a year). We have established a system to cover the whole recycling process-from keeping records of all the waste that enters the town, to dismantling and on to the final re-sales," Zheng explained.
