Design for E-Waste Recycling Deposit System and Expense Mechanism in China

With 50 million metric tons of e-waste disposed worldwide each year, e-waste recycling has become an increasingly important issue globally. China alone adds 2 million tons of e-waste and the number increases at a rate of more than 10% each year (Ni, 2007). American consumers replace their mobile phones every one and half years on average (Grow, 2008), producing 130 million discarded cell phones annually nationwide (Hanselman, 2007). In China, 70 million mobile phones and 10 million PCs are being discarded each year (NDRC1, 2006). Likewise, more than 50 million PCs are disposed in the U.S. each year (Hung, 2007), with this number accounting for only 10% of the disposable computers. The majorities of defunct computers are not being used and simply collect dust (Zhong, 2009).