Environmental implications of PCB manufacturing in China

By 2003, China has become the second largest printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer in the world. Compared with same period of last year, import and export of PCBs in the first quarter of 2003 have increased 40.2% and 24.8%, respectively, and PCB yield in the first half of 2003 has increased 34.6%. Obviously, the rapid growth of the PCB industry has contributed to China´s economy. Nonetheless, it has also imposed threats to the environment due to 90% of PCB manufacturers being small and medium sized enterprises (SME), no specific pollution control legislations are available to date, and the recycling is done largely by farmers in rural areas. This paper gives a survey of the PCB manufacturing industry of China and in addition presents problems of pollution prevention and control of the industry.