Rethinking of recycling and reuse options of obsolete personal computers in China

The existing practice of treating obsolete PCs in China had led to some environmental pollution and lose some recoverable materials. There is a big challenge for China to deal with a vast quantity of obsolete PCs in a sustainable way, i.e. maximizing the recovery of the material value and minimizing the environmental load. Substance flow analysis (SFA) is used in this paper to trace the recycling pathway of used PCs. Total materials flow, some hazardous or toxic substances, as well as the recoverable materials are analyzed in the context of flow and stock. Two options of reuse and material recovery are compared in the context of environmental load and economic value. The results show that metals like iron/steel, copper, aluminum was recycled in a high rate. The PWB is most difficult part for recyclers due to the backward separating technology and its potential environmental pollution. Based on the material mass, the reused parts in HD driver, power supply, CD-Rom, and FD driver are accounting for 7.7%, 26.6%, 7.8%, and 4.5%, respectively. Reuse is a more reasonable EOL option for computers. The design for reuse, as well as the law and regulation for reusing components should be promoted.