As society’s demand for consumer electronics grow, so too does its electronic waste. Electronic waste, or “e-waste” can be characterized as electronic items that have become inoperative, unwanted or obsolete and have essentially reached the end of their usefulness [1]. The proper disposal of such waste is a growing environmental concern. As a result, techniques have been introduced worldwide to recycle some of this waste. In this paper, we will discuss the e-waste recycling programs present in two very distinctive countries, Canada and China.
In Canada, there is an e-waste recycling fee that is added to the cost of purchasing new televisions, computers, and computer components. However, there are only a limited amount of provinces in Canada
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The fee covers the cost of collecting, transporting and disposing of the device, as well as associated administrative costs. When you drop off the device, it is sorted then dismantled into its various parts. Machines separate out the different metals, which are then melted down and shipped out to be turned into new products. Plastic and glass are also sold to be turned into new products, when possible. The recycling centre also safely disposes rare elements like lithium, which can be harmful if not disposed of correctly [4]****. Manitoba and Ontario not only apply this fee, but also issued the “Electrical and Electronic Equipment Stewardship Regulation” by which the sale of regulated products is forbidden unless covered by the stewardship program. Products covered under this legislation include TVs, computers, laptops, and scanners. This requires producers to either develop product stewardship plans or comply with a product stewardship program for specific products [2]. In China, formal and informal recyclers co-exist within its current e-waste recycling system [5,7]. Informal recycling of e-waste is prevalent in China, particularly in some coastal regions located in Guiyu, Longtang and Dali on the Pearl River Delta, Taizhou on the Yangtze River Delta, Hebei Province, Hunan