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The life cycle assessment of an e-waste treatment enterprise in China

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • The 7th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology (ICWMT) 2012
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) has become one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, and many countries have established e-waste treatment enterprises to solve their e-waste problems. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was undertaken to quantitatively investigate the environmental impacts of an e-waste treatment enterprise in China. The LCA is constructed by SimaPro software version 7.2 and expressed with the Eco-indicator 99 life cycle impact assessment method. For a sensitivity analysis of the overall LCA results, the so-called CML method is used in order to estimate the influence of the choice of the assessment method on the result. According to the survey data, discarded TV sets accounted for the highest proportion of e-waste treated in the enterprise in 2010. The e-waste treatment had little environmental impact, and at the same time large environmental benefits can be achieved mainly due to the recycled resources and reuse of some components. Based on the research results, it can be seen that recycled metal, especially copper, would be of more importance for environmental benefits. Relevant results and data from this study could provide decision support to enterprise managers and government sectors.

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Acknowledgments

The work is financially supported by the Environmental Protection Public Welfare Project (grant number 201109035), and University of Macau.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China

    Qingbin Song & Zhishi Wang

  2. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Qingbin Song, Jinhui Li & Xianlai Zeng

Authors
  1. Qingbin Song
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  2. Zhishi Wang
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  3. Jinhui Li
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  4. Xianlai Zeng
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Correspondence to Zhishi Wang.

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Song, Q., Wang, Z., Li, J. et al. The life cycle assessment of an e-waste treatment enterprise in China. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 15, 469–475 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-013-0152-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-013-0152-7

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