Yin Huang, Mengjun Chen*, Jinchuan Qin, Shaoqin Chen, Songshan Zhou, Rong Huang, Xiangfei Zeng, Yunhui Han, Yi Liu, Min Shang, Pengcheng Wang, Jiaqi Hu and Oladele A. Ogunseitan,
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
China’s Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), and other departments have collaborated on WEEE Disposal Fund (the Fund) to improve large-scale, industrialized, and specialized WEEE disposal. At present, the Fund plays a key role in China, but with a budget deficit of up to 3 billion Yuan per year. By linking the achievements of WEEE recycling to the policy to promote carbon neutrality, the Fund would compensate for the associated fee, thereby facilitating sustainable recycling. To test the feasibility of this strategy, we have assessed GHG emission reduction levels associated with WEEE recycling based on archival data analysis and field research. The results show that the GHG reduction related to WEEE recycling in Sichuan Province is 160,279.152 tCO2eq. and 8.36 million tCO2eq in China in 2021. But this amount significantly underestimates the potential benefits due to methodology limitations. It is assumed a reformed approach that can increase the estimated GHG reductions by 42% (to 11.85 million tCO2eq). This reform highlights the key role of including downstream resource recovery processes in carbon trading schemes, which is expected to alleviate the current deficit. The study suggests that the GHG emission reduction assessment of WEEE recycling should be re-formed to promote the sustainability of WEEE recycling.