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Current Practice and Policy for Transforming E-waste into Urban Mining - Case Study in Taiwan

Jul 24, 20247 min read

  • Sources

  • Abbreviations

    • MSW - Municipal Solid Waste
    • WMA - Waste Management Act
    • RRFMB - Resource Recycling Fund Management Board
    • RRRRC - Resource Recycling Rate Review Committee
    • ICT - Information and Communications Technology
    • TEPA - The Environmental Protection Administration of the Republic of China on Taiwan

  • Terminologies

    • Types of Waste

      • MSW - the waste generated by non-industrial communities, including residential wastes, commercial wastes and municipal service wastes.
        • General garbage
        • Bulk garbage, includes large discarded furniture, branches and tree trimmings, which are mostly recycled by repair and sold to the second-hand market.

        • Recyclable Garbage

          • Kitchen (food) waste
          • Resource garbage refers to the designated articles (e.g., paper, plastics, e-waste) and containers officially announced by the central competent authority in Taiwan.
      • **Industrial waste **

  • Causes of increasing E-waste

    • Taiwan is a major supplier of electrical and electronic products. 1
    • The rapid growth in both the population and the economic development has caused a substantial increase in the amounts of MSW.
      • Supporting Facts:
        • See Table 2 of the study.

  • Instigator of the E-waste recycling efforts

    • The shift in the composition of wastes, due to emergence of more complex technologies and products, posed a threat to public health and the air quality of Taiwan.
    • MSW has a lot of valuable recyclable materials.
    • The incineration and landfill approach to waste management cannot sustainably handle the increasing e-waste. Not only could they cause environmental issues, but also the depletion of valuable resources. 2
    • Based on the average e-waste generation per capita, Taiwan ranked the third-highest per capita in East and Southeast Asia at 19.13 kg in 2015

  • The 4-in-1 Recycling Program

    • A program initialized by TEPA on 1997 to sustainably incentivize the recycling and reuse of recyclable waste like e-waste.

    • Contributions

      • Taiwan recycled from 7,321 tons of e-waste in 2001 to 74,421 tons of e-waste in 2015.
        • Counter Point: Nevertheless, the development in the market has been slowing down due to the aging population and the slow economic growth.
      • Under the 15-year promotion, over 80% of the e-waste recycling rate has been achieved.

  • Waste Management Act

    • It is a law, initially promulgated in 1974, that aims to define the categories of MSW, and clarify the obligations and responsibilities of MSW management.
    • The act describes the regulated recyclable waste as those that could cause serious environmental pollution and posses the following characteristics:
      • difficult to dispose of
      • contain components that do not readily decompose over a long-term period
      • contain components that are hazardous
      • valuable for reuse and recycling.

    • Recycling Funds and Fees

      • The recycling fund plays a vital role in the program because it currently collects around US $25 million per year from the responsible manufacturers and importers.
      • The responsible enterprises shall register with the central competent authority and also pay recycling fees to an officially assigned bank according to the fee rates approved by the RRFMB. 3
      • Tables 4–6 listed the current recycling fee rates of home electrical appliances, IT products and lightings.
      • To stabilize the revenues and expenses for the resource recycling fund and also to encourage manufacturers and importers to make products more eco-friendly, Tables 4 and 5 also listed the reduced recycling fee rates of home electrical appliances and IT products, which belong to the categories of green products with carrying the green-mark or energy/water saving labels. 4
      • Table 7 indicated the number of registered e-waste collection and treatment enterprises in Taiwan.
      • Each e-waste collection enterprise, registered by RRFMB, must sign a contract with the registered treatment enterprises for selling the collected e-waste under a negotiable price.

  • Current Status of E-Waste Recycling in Taiwan

    • E-waste can be collected through implementing agencies, including private recycling systems, local government MSW collection crews, individual recyclers, and registered collection facilities, or directly from the manufacturers and importers.
    • According to the government regulations, the collected e-waste will be sent to the registered treatment facilities that have proper machines and procedures to disassemble, pulverize and separate the component materials or pieces. Creation of secondary pollution will be avoided during the process.
    • Table 9 listed the amounts of e-waste recycled by implementing agencies over the past 15 years (from 2001 to 2015) in Taiwan (TEPA, 2016). 5
      • The qualities of recyclable lightings have increased from 1,617 tons in 2003 to 6,708 tons in 2013. However, the volume of waste lightings showed a declining trend since 2013. This shift change could be attributed to the mature recycling market and the extensive use of light emitting diode (LED) lightings in Taiwan. LED technology is known for its high efficiency and extraordinary long lifetime.
      • Regarding the qualities of home electrical appliances recycled, it showed an increasing trend from 6,058 tons in 2001 to 51,511 tons in 2015. However, the increasing trend was gradually smaller because the recycling market in Taiwan became mature in recent years.
      • Although Taiwan is famous for its semiconductor-manufacturing and ICT industries, the qualities of recyclable IT products stably maintained on an average at around 14,000 tons in the past decade (2006–2015).

  • Timeline

    • 1974

      • Promulgation of the WMA.

    • 1991

      • 13 July: A major regulation authorized by the WMA was enforced — charge for clean-up and treatment of MSW (based on the polluter pays principle).

    • 1997

      • 23 April: A major regulation authorized by the WMA was enforced — recycle, clean-up, and treatment of MSW.
        • Classification of MSW, the requirements of collection and treatment technology, and treatment facilities for MSW.
      • TEPA initialized Taiwan’s 4-in-1 recycling program.
      • The establishment of the Green Procurement Law, which preferentially procures the use of green (a.k.a. eco-friendly) products to incentivize green consumption and production. As a consequence, it increases the value of e-waste and their recycling rates. id:: 660542ee-b57e-48f3-9145-3664fe8cd8ca

    • 1998

      • 01 July: the authorization of RRFMB to subsidize the recycling and collection of regulated recyclable waste.
      • 17 July: the authorization of the RRRRC to set the fee rates or subsidy rates of regulated recyclable.

    • 2001

      • Taiwan recycled 7,231 tons of e-waste.

    • 2002

      • 31 July: The registration of the recycling (collection and treatment) enterprises for the regulated recyclable wastes.
      • 09 October: The audit and certification of the recycling (collection and treatment) enterprises for the regulated recyclable wastes.
      • 23 October: The registration of the responsible enterprises for the regulated recyclable wastes.

    • 2015

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      • Taiwan recycled 74,421 tons of e-waste.

  • Claims

    • Electronics equipment significantly and positively influences all aspects of producers and consumers in recent years.
      • Supporting Facts
        • The generated e-waste in different countries not only contain valuable recyclable materials (including gold, silver, palladium, copper, iron, aluminum, and rare metals), but also heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, and other toxic chemicals. 6
    • The collection, recovery, and treatment of e-waste have become a vital issue in the MSW management because their illegal dumping and stockpiles will cause potential fire hazards and serious environmental health impacts.
    • A growing number of industrial operations reuse the e-waste to supplement valuable materials in Taiwan (due to the 4-in-1 recycling program), which not only stimulate the development of venous industries, but also help the government towards the goals of circular economy and low-carbon society.
    • Taiwan has been endeavoring to formulate standards and principles to help their environmental protection enterprises take advantage of green commerce opportunities via e-waste recycling and the promotion of green products.
      • Supporting Facts
        • The establishment of the following:
          • Green Procurement law
          • Waste Management Act
          • 4-in-1 Recycling Program

Footnotes

  1. Electrical deals with the flow of electrical power or charge, whereas electronics deals with the flow of electrons. ↩

  2. With regards to how these approaches harm the environment, the components in e-waste contain organic compounds in the presence of flame-retardants containing chlorine and bromine, thus generating dioxins and acidic air pollutants when incinerated. ↩

  3. These recycling fees shall be used to incentivize and subsidize recycling of regulated recyclable wastes to the registered recycling enterprises (registered private collectors and treatment enterprises). ↩

  4. The Taiwan government has formally established the Green Procurement Law in 1997. Under the authorization of the Law, the official and private organizations procure the green products preferentially because the domestic market can lead to the trends of green consumption and green growth. In addition, the EPA has cooperated with the certified recyclers and remanufacturers to provide promotion assistance in the procurement of green products ↩

  5. The annual certified quantity of e-waste significantly increased from 7,321 tons in 2001 to 39,116 tons in 2004, showing that the achievements of e-waste recycling are significantly progressive. ↩

  6. Heavy metals are toxic. ↩

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