Plug the flow of e-waste

That China has become the world's largest dump for electronic waste has underscored the urgent need to regulate its disorderly electronic waste processing and recycling market and plug the policy and legislation loopholes that have facilitated the inflows of e-waste.

According to a recent report co-drafted by the United Nations University and Tsinghua University, about 70 percent of the electronic waste generated worldwide, from scrapped televisions and refrigerators to computers and cell phones, ends up in China. A large portion of it is illegally transferred from the United States and elsewhere to China through ports or via Vietnam. Some e-waste also sneaks its way into the mainland through Hong Kong.

It is estimated that 3.62 million tons of e-waste were discarded in China in 2011. And considering the rapid increase in the consumption of electrical and electronic devices at home in recent years, as a result of improved living standards, the amount of e-waste that will need to be dealt with will further rise in the years to come.