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Present status of recycling waste mobile phones in China: a review

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Abstract

A large number of waste mobile phones have already been generated and are being generated. Various countries around the world have all been positively exploring the way of recycling and reuse when facing such a large amount of waste mobile phones. In some countries, processing waste mobile phones has been forming a complete industrial chain, which can not only recycle waste mobile phones to reduce their negative influence on the environment but also turn waste into treasure to acquire economic benefits dramatically. However, the situation of recycling waste mobile phones in China is not going well. Waste mobile phones are not formally covered by existing regulations and policies for the waste electric and electronic equipment in China. In order to explore an appropriate system to recover waste mobile phones, the mobile phone production and the amount of waste mobile phones are introduced in this paper, and status of waste mobile phones recycling is described; then, the disposal technology of electronic waste that would be most likely to be used for processing of electronic waste in industrial applications in the near future is reviewed. Finally, rationalization proposals are put forward based on the current recovery status of waste mobile phones for the purpose of promoting the development of recycling waste mobile phones in developing countries with a special emphasis on China.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety, Ministry of Education of China, Tsinghua University: SWMES 2011–02, and supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (ZR2013EEM008). The authors are grateful to the reviewers who help us improve the paper by many pertinent comments and suggestions.

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  1. College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, Qingdao, 266042, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Jingying Li, Zhongying Ge & Ni An

  2. Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, 521041, China

    Changjin Liang

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  1. Jingying Li
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Correspondence to Jingying Li.

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Li, J., Ge, Z., Liang, C. et al. Present status of recycling waste mobile phones in China: a review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 16578–16591 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9089-z

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