Although China prohibited imports of secondhand home appliances in 1998, e-waste in 2000 and crushed e-waste in 2002, e-waste traders still manage to import the materials through Hong Kong. Even if the Chinese Government was able to keep foreign toxic waste from washing up on the country's shores, the amount produced domestically has begun growing exponentially. The daily e-waste output in China totals some 3,000 tons, according to statistics from the country's Ministry of Environmental Protection.

While Guiyu is considered the largest dumping ground for e-waste in the world, Taizhou in Zhejiang Province, Huanghua in Hebei Province and some other cities in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces emerged as new major e-waste processing sites, according to a 2007 report by the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

These factors have made finding safer ways to dismantle, recycle and store old electronic products all the more critical.

Play the role

For years, organizations such as Greenpeace and the BAN have urged major electronic waste exporters to cease sending hazardous waste to China and other developing countries.

The Basel Convention, from which the BAN got its name, prohibited the export of hazardous waste in 1994, but the United States has long refused to ratify the convention. The country exports 80 percent of its e-waste to China, India and Nigeria.

While pressing the U.S. Government to introduce a law banning e-waste dumping, environmentalists are seeking better e-waste solutions. They work to make consumers more aware of the potential harm, offering the 3R Initiative: reduce, reuse and recycle. They also urge manufacturers and vendors to take more responsibility for the waste their industries produce.

In addition to several rules and regulations by varied ministries, the Chinese Government has beefed up efforts to combat illegal e-waste recycling.

According to new regulations announced in February, China will establish a licensing system for recycling companies and require manufacturers and importers to indicate the presence of toxic or hazardous substances, and methods for recovery or disposal.

A dedicated government fund will be established to subsidize the recovery and disposal of electrical and electronic products. Manufacturers of electrical and electronic products, consignees and their agents are required to pay fees that will go into the fund.

Greenpeace China, an advocate for Extended Producer Responsibility, applauded the regulation.

"The regulation embodies the 'polluter pays' principle, and can effectively prevent electronic waste contamination from the very beginning by making manufacturers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products," said Lai Yun, Toxics Campaign Director of Greenpeace China.

But regulators still must work out detailed technology and process requirements to qualify applicants for e-waste recycling and disposal licenses. "This can prevent a second contamination from happening in the recycling process," Lai said.

Urban mining

Japan, a nation known to be short on natural resources, is emerging as a top competitor in what has been dubbed "urban mining," where processors safely extract valuable metals from e-waste for industrial reuse.

Japan's urban mines exceed 10 percent of world reserves of many metals including gold, according to estimates by that country's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). If urban mines are properly exploited, Japan would immediately jump into the top five global producers of some metals along with Canada, Australia and Brazil, NIMS said.

One ton of electronic scraps from personal computers, for instance, contain more gold than that recovered from 17 tons of gold ore, and one ton of computer circuit boards typically yields 200 grams of gold.

China in 2006 disposed of 4.6 million TVs, 2.1 million refrigerators, 2.5 million washing machines, 1.4 million air conditioners and 2 million computers, according to the country's National Bureau of Statistics. The bureau expects the disposal rate of these items to grow between 5 percent and 10 percent annually in China.

Likewise, through the e-waste regulation, China aims to develop its own recycling economy and encourage licensed, well-equipped e-waste recycling plants.

A recycling plant in Shanghai's Baoshan District, which is owned by Shanghai Central WEEE Recycling Co. Ltd., has processed less than 2,000 tons of waste each year since it was launched more than two years ago, or one fifth of its designed capacity, said the company's General Manager Yang Guixing.

China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, announced detailed plans for the country's home appliance replacement subsidies in June. The scheme is designed to spur domestic spending on home appliances and curb pollution. It requires that customers contact local recycling plants to pick up old appliances in order for them to qualify for subsidies worth 10 percent off the retail price of various home appliances. These items include TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers.

As a response, Shanghai Central WEEE Recycling, for instance, plans to establish a network to cover all of Shanghai's districts and counties for old appliances discarded under the scheme by the end of this year, said Yang.