Key Environmental Impacts of the Chinese EEE ... - e-Waste Guide

Materials Science & Technology

Key Environmental Impacts of the Chinese EEE-Industry A Life Cycle Assessment Study

Final Report

Martin Eugster, Roland Hischier / Empa, Switzerland Huabo Duan / Tsinghua University, China

St.Gallen, Switzerland and Beijing, China (2007) 5th October 2007 Supported by:

Martin Eugster, Roland Hischier Empa – Materials Science and Technology Technology and Society Laboratory Lerchenfeldstrasse 5 CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland Phone +41 (0)71 274 74 74 Fax +41 (0)71 274 74 62 [email protected] [email protected]

Huabo Duan Tsinghua University Department of Environmental Science and Engineering CN-100084 Beijing, China Phone +86 10 6278 2029 Fax +86 10 6277 2048 [email protected] i

Table of Contents

1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................... 1

2

METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 6

3

4

5

6

7

2.1

GENERAL APPROACH ................................................................................................... 6

2.2

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHOD .............................................................................. 7

2.3

APPROXIMATION PROCEDURE FOR FURTHER E-PRODUCTS ............................................ 9

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT STUDY OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM .......................... 10 3.1

GOAL AND SCOPE DEFINITION .................................................................................... 10

3.2

INVENTORY ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 14

3.3

IMPACT ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................. 24

3.4

INTERPRETATION OF THE LCA STUDY .......................................................................... 41

KEY ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MAJOR CHINESE E-PRODUCTS ................. 42 4.1

KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EXAMINED CHINESE E-PRODUCTS ................................ 42

4.2

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE VARIOUS DEVICES......................................... 43

4.3

DETAILED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE MANUFACTURING PHASE ............................ 45

4.4

DETAILED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE USE PHASE ................................................ 46

4.5

RELEASE OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES IN THE END-OF-LIFE PHASE .............................. 47

4.6

DOMESTIC E-WASTE GENERATION ............................................................................... 49

4.7

E-WASTE IMPORTS ..................................................................................................... 54

CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS............................................................ 56 5.1

CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 56

5.2

POLICY IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................ 58

ANNEX ............................................................................................................................ 62 6.1

ANNEX 1 – TRADE DATA ............................................................................................. 62

6.2

ANNEX 2 – LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ 75

6.3

ANNEX 3 – LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... 78

LITERATURE .................................................................................................................. 83

ii

List of Abbreviation

ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

BAN

Basel Action Network

CE

Consumer Electronics

CED

Cumulative Energy Demand

CFCs

Chlorofluorocarbons

CML

Institute of Environmental Sciences (Leiden University)

CRT

Cathode Ray Tubes

CU

Control Unit

DALY

Disability Adjusted Life Years

EEE

Electrical and Electronic Equipment

EIP

Eco-Indicator Points

EoL

End-of-Life

GWP

Global Warming Potential

HCFCs

Hydro Chlorofluorocarbons

HDD

Hard Disk Drive

IC

Integrated Circuits

ICT

Information and Communication Technology

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

LCA

Life Cycle Assessment

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display

LCI

Life Cycle Inventory

LCIA

Life Cycle Impact Assessment

LHAs

Large Household Appliances

MOFCOM

Chinese Ministry of Commerce

MSW

Municipal Solid Waste

MSWI

Municipal Solid Waste Incineration

PBDE

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers

PC

Personal Computer

PCB

Polychlorinated Biphenyls

PDF

Potentially Disappeared Fraction

PDP

Plasma Display Panel

POP

Persistent Organic Pollutants

PSU

Power Supply Unit

PWB

Printed Wiring Board iii

RAM

Random Access Memory

SEPA

Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration

UBP

Umweltbelastungs-Punkte

VDU

Visual Display Unit

WEEE

Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment

WTE

Waste-to-Energy

iv

1

Executive Summary

Introduction China plays a key role in the EEE industry and produces a significant share of the worldwide output. In 2006, 72 million notebook PCs and 229 million desktop PCs were sold worldwide (IDC 2007). China produces 77% of the global output of notebook PCs and 21% of desktop PCs respectively (NBSC 2006). In 2005, global shipments of CRT televisions were 158 million (Display 2007) whereas China has produced 79 million units or 50% (NBSC 2005). Additionally, a large amount of Chinas exports from the EEE industry are components and semi-finished products for final assembling in regional markets, in particular for desktop PCs. The electronics industry is a major economic driver in China. Manufacturing of information and communication equipment make up 10.2% of the countries industrial output value and 6.3% of the industrial profits (NBSC 2006). In 2005, the Chinese electronics industry generated a trade surplus of 65.5 billion US$ or 64.2% of the country’s total surplus (WTO 2006). The export share of notebook PCs and LCD monitors is 94% and 88% respectively, for LCD TVs, mobile phones and CRT monitors an export share higher than 70% is observed. Undeniably, the EEE industry is highly relevant for the Chinese economy and seems to continue being important in the future. This study shall contribute to objectify the discussion on environmental sustainability of the Chinese EEE industry and shall provide a basis to identify intervention strategies for increasing the overall environmental performance of e-products.

Goal and Methodology The sector of e-products is very broad and comprises a vast variety of different types of appliances. The individual characteristics differ significantly in terms of production and disposal processes or material demand and energy consumption. Hence, in order to analyze and interpret the environmental impacts of the entire EEE sector a step-wise approach is chosen in this study: 1)

In a first step a detailed and modular life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis of a desktop PC system is carried out. The functional unit includes an actual desktop PC and peripheral devices like monitor, keyboard and mouse produced in China. Environmental impacts along the whole life cycle (manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment) are quantified. The global distribution and use in different regions are taken into account. For the end-of-life phase a state-of-the-art recycling technology is assumed. (see section 3)

2)

Secondly, key environmental impacts of further e-products are approximated. For this a simplified LCA is carried out for refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and for comparison reasons also for a desktop PC 1

system. Again environmental impacts of the main phases manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment are quantified and assessed. (see section 4)

LCA of a desktop PC system A desktop PC consists of a large quantity of components and assemblies, whereas each could be potentially sourced in China or abroad. Hence the supply chain network becomes very complex and barely tangible. It has been observed that components like integrated (logic) circuits (ICs) or LCD modules, two components with a very high technology level for the production (clean room, etc.) are hardly produced currently in China, while simpler materials or assemblies like soldering, fasteners, connectors, cables, fan, resistors, semiconductor devices, CD- or DVDROM, floppy drives, as well as printed wiring boards are produced mainly in China. Thus, for key components like logic ICs, the Chinese electronic industry depends much on imports. In 2006, approximately 47.5 million desktop PCs were produced in China. Thereof about 8.2 million pieces or 17.2% were exported and sold abroad (Custom 2006). The main trading partners for desktop PCs are Asian countries, Europe and North America. Due to high packaging volume of a final assembled PC, often only assemblies and semi-finished products are exported. These material flows are not included in the production and export data of desktop PCs by the national statistics and thus not considered in this LCA study. The LCA study of the desktop PC system shows that the phases manufacturing and use generate very high environmental impacts, while the end-of-life phase can result in a significant environmental benefit. The environmental impacts in the distribution phase are compared to the other phases relatively small (see Figure 1). Within the manufacturing phase of a desktop PC system the most significant environmental impacts are generated in the production of integrated circuits (IC). Three aspects are responsible for this impact – the energy consumption of the process itself, the wafer production and the energy intensive refining of precious metals (here especially Gold). Apart ICs, all further components containing precious metals contribute also in a rather important way to the total impact due to the PC production. Only minor impacts result from the (final) assembling of all components, semi-finished and final products to the actual desktop PC as well as from the subsequent distribution step – even when shipped to Europe or North America. Due to the electricity consumption of the desktop PC in the use phase, significant environmental impacts are generated during the here examined lifespan of six years. Its impacts are directly linked to electricity production and the higher the percentage of fossil-fuels based electricity production (e.g. coal-fired power) the higher the level of damage to human health due to impacts from climate change and the level of damage to resources due to fossil-fuel consumption.

2

45

Eco-Indicator'99 points

30

15

0 Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

End of Life

-15

-30

Human Health

Ecosystem Quality

Resources


20

15

10

5

0 Desktop

Figure 1

CRT-Screen

LCD-Screen

Human Health

Ecosystem Quality

Keyboard

Mouse

Resources

Environmental impacts in manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life phases (upper graph) and environmental loads of different units of a desktop PC system (lower graph)

In the end-of-life phase the production of secondary raw materials and thereby the avoidance of mineral extraction through substitution (circular flow economy) can compensate negative environmental impacts from recycling and recovery activities or even result in environmental benefits. Informal workshops tend to have inefficient recovery processes for precious metals and can potentially contribute less to the reduction of the overall environmental burden of the EEE chain. Furthermore, severe adverse impacts to the environment can occur in informal sector due to inappropriate recycling, recovery and/or disposal processes.

Key environmental impacts of Chinese e-products From current trade data it is calculated that in 2005 for refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and desktop PCs produced in China more than 3.3 millions tons of steel, 1.9 millions tons of plastics, 1.7 millions tons of glass, 0.7 million tons of copper and 0.3 million tons of aluminium was used. Figure 2 shows the respective environmental impact related to this consumption of raw materials. All in all, more than 12% of the total Chinese copper consumption of 5.6 million tons (Nationmaster 2007) comes from the production of e-products. 3

The annual electricity consumption in the use phase of all air-conditioners produced in 2005 is 81’893 GWh. Refrigerators consume 22’881, CRT TV 18’941, PC 8’911 and washing machines 2’790 GWh annually. Thus again, the air-conditioners contribute substantially to the overall environmental impacts in the use phase of eproducts. The low penetration rate of PCs in China and consequently the low level e-waste generation per capita indicates that in China the market for e-products is far away from saturation and still growing. Hence it is expected that the waste volumes will in the near future dramatically further increase. According to the estimates the total domestic e-waste generation will double from 2006 to 2009 and will exceed clearly 3 million tons. There are no statistical data available for illegal imports of e-waste, but it can be assumed that today illegal e-waste imports still occur in China. In this study it is estimated that about 1.5 million tons of e-waste has been imported illegally in 2001.

Eco-Indicator'99 points per Year

2.10E+09

Plastics

Aluminum

Copper

Steel

Glass

Other

1.40E+09

7.00E+08

0.00E+00 PC

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

PC

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

2.8E+09


2.1E+09

1.4E+09

7.0E+08

0.0E+00

Figure 2

Annual material consumption (upper graph) and annual electricity consumption (lower graph) of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and personal computer produced in 2005 in China, assessed using Eco-Indicator 99 points

4

Conclusions The recovery of material resources in a circular flow economy and an effective and efficient management of hazardous substances are essential. Sustainable processes in terms of economic and ecological performance and social implications are the cornerstone for a continuous sustainability improvement. Finally, the optimal framework for a well functioning system is fundamental and is given by the legal framework and a secure financing system for the external cost. A set of possible measures are proposed and grouped according these main fields of interventions, namely to establish a circular flow economy, to control hazardous substances, to implement sustainable processes and to ensure an optimal legal framework and secure financing. (see section 5)

5

2

Methodology

2.1

General Approach

The sector of electronic and electric equipment (EEE) or e-products is very broad and comprises a vast variety of different types of appliances. The individual characteristics differ significantly in terms of production and disposal processes or material demand and energy consumption. The following figure illustrates the material composition of selected e-products. 100%

Others / unspecified Electronics

80%

Hazardous substances

60%

Glass & Concrete 40%

Plastics

Non-ferrous metals

20%

Ferro metals

Figure 3

Portable Telefon

Personal Computer

Printer

Television

Coffee machine

Electric stoves

Dish washing machine

Washing machine

Refrigerator

0%

Different composition of various electronic and electric equipments (Hischier, Wäger et al. 2005)

Hence, in order to analyze and interpret the environmental impacts of the entire EEE sector a step-wise approach is chosen: •

In a first step a detailed and modular life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis of a desktop PC system is carried out. The functional unit includes an actual desktop PC and peripheral devices like monitor, keyboard and mouse produced in China. Environmental impacts along the whole life cycle (manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment) are quantified. The global distribution and use in different regions are taken into account. For the end-of-life phase a state-of-the-art recycling technology is assumed.

•

Secondly, key environmental impacts of further e-products are approximated. For this a simplified LCA is carried out for refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and for comparison reasons also for a desktop PC system. Again environmental impacts of the main phases manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment are quantified and assessed.

6

2.2

Life Cycle Assessment Method

2.2.1

ISO 14’040 and Chinese LCA standards

The environmental impacts of the product chain of a desktop personal computer is quantified and interpreted using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology according to the international standard ISO 14’040 (ISO 1997 – 2006). Within the basic principle of this method, the following steps can be distinguished:

1. Defining the goal and scope of the study (step “A” in Figure 4); 2. Making a model of the product life cycle with all environmentally relevant inflows and outflows. This data collection effort is usually referred to as the lifecycle inventory (LCI) phases (step “B” in Figure 4); 3. Understanding the environmental relevance of all inflows and outflows; this is referred to as the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase (step “C” in Figure 4); 4. Interpreting the results of the study (step “D” in Figure 4).

The priority and logical relation between each stage are showed in the following chart. Figure 4 shows how these different steps are linked together and it emphasizes the iterative characteristic of the LCA approach.

Figure 4

The different steps of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study according to the ISO technical standard 14’040

In China, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) drafted out and issued national standards for LCA in line with the ISO standard system:

GB/T 24040-1999, identical to ISO 14040 (1999): Environmental Management—Life cycle Assessment—Principles and Framework (SEPA 1999);

7

GB/T 24041-2000, identical to ISO 14041 (1999): Environmental Management—Life cycle Assessment—Goal and scope definition and inventory analysis (SEPA 2000);

GB/T 24042-2002, identical to ISO 14042 (2000): Environmental Management—Life cycle Assessment—life cycle impact assessment (SEPA 2002);

GB/T 24042-2003, identical to ISO 14043 (2000): Environmental Management—Life cycle Assessment—interpretation (SEPA 2003).

2.2.2

Supporting Modelling Tools

Within this study here, the LCI and the LCIA analyses are carried out using the LCA software system SIMAPRO, version 7.0 (Pre 1999).

2.2.3

Inventory Analysis

In the inventory phase, a model is made of the complex technical system that is used to produce, transport, use and dispose an average Chinese desktop PC. This results in a process flow sheet with more than 2’000 processes within the modelling tool. Thereby, for each process, all the relevant inflows and the outflows are collected. New data is partly gathered in China within the scope of this project, or existing data sets from an inventory database are adapted or used directly.

2.2.4

Impact Assessment Method

As impact assessment method the Eco-indicator 99, hierarchist version (Goedkoop and Spriensma 2000) is used here. In this method, the impact analysis categories analyzed are climate change (or global warming), resource consumption (including minerals and fossil fuels), respiratory effects, acidification & eutrophication, land use, carcinogens and ecotoxicity. Within this methodology, these categories are associated to three types of environmental damages:

1. Human Health (unit: DALY= Disability adjusted life years; this means different disability caused by diseases are weighted); 2. Ecosystem Quality (unit: PDF*m2*a; PDF= Potentially Disappeared Fraction of plant species); 3. Resources (unit: MJ surplus energy; Additional energy requirement to compensate lower future ore grade).

Normalisation and weighting are performed at this damage category level (end-point level in ISO terminology). Figure 5 shows an overview of theses various steps within the Eco-Indicator 99 method. 8

Figure 5

General Representation of the Methodology. The white boxes above refer to intermediate results; the other boxes below refer to procedures (for more, see at: http://www.pre.nl/ecoindicator99/eco-indicator_99_introduction.htm)

The whole method is an example for the damage-oriented approach, referring to European conditions. Nevertheless, as there is no specific LCIA method for China available, this method is used here in this study. In the sense of a sensitivity analysis of this chosen method, the main calculations have been made also with further commonly used methods (i.e. CML’01, UBP’97, Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), Global Warming according to IPCC). As these further methods don’t end up in significant different results, this report here shows for the majority of the examined aspects the results only with the Eco-Indicator 99.

2.3

Approximation Procedure for further E-Products

For refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and CRT TVs a simplified LCA of material resource use, energy consumption during the use phase, development of the waste generation and potential release of hazardous materials is established. For this, standard environmental data are applied accordingly to a simplified composition analysis of the beforehand mentioned products.

9

3

Life Cycle Assessment Study of a Desktop PC System

3.1

Goal and Scope Definition

3.1.1

Goal of the Study

The goal of this LCA study here is to identify and assess the most significant environmental impacts of a desktop PC system along its complete life cycle – from the extraction of the raw materials, across the production & use, up to the recycling or the final disposal of all non-recyclable parts.

Within this LCA study for a desktop PC system, the specific goals are as follows:

to analyze the environmental impacts along the complete life cycle of a desktop PC system and to quantify the contribution of the phases manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment

to identify the processes which cause the major environmental impacts (hot-spots) of the most relevant life cycle phases

to allocate the major environmental impacts to the most relevant markets for Chinese desktop PCs

3.1.2

Product System and Functional Unit

The functional unit of this study is the complete life-span of one desktop personal computer system as produced in China and used on a global level – a desktop PC system as shown in Figure 6.

Wires Disc driver Loudhailer System components CRT display

Printer Not included Mouse

Key board

Figure 6

Functional unit „ desktop PC system with CRT monitor“ (printer not included)

10

The PC, its various raw materials, components and parts are produced partly in China and partly abroad. Use, and hence the end-of-life treatment occur for this study here on a global level. The effective lifespan of this PC – taking into account an eventual second (or even third) user of this device - is assumed to be six years. From the system shown in Figure 6, four different units are taken into account for this study here: the actual desktop computer without screen, the keyboard, the mouse and the visual display unit (VDU). In this study, for the latter one it is assumed a mixture of CRT monitors (50%) and LCD monitors (50%).

3.1.2.1 Desktop Computer The desktop computer is the central part of such a system; this is where information is processed and stored. It contains the motherboard on which are mounted the electronic circuits necessary for the functioning of the computer. The most central part of the desktop computer is the processor circuit, which is the brain of the computer, directing all the information flows between the different parts of the computer. Besides the motherboard the system contains several drives (e.g. floppy disk, CD-ROM, hard disk drive (HDD)), various specific printed wiring boards (PWB) (e.g. the graphical card), and working memory or RAM (Random Access Memory). All these units consist predominantly of transistors made from semi-conducting materials, mainly silicon. The motherboard is a printed wiring board (PWB), a laminated plate with electric circuits on which is mounted semiconductor components. The memory units of the control unit (CU) can be divided into working memory and the disc memories. The RAM is a temporary storage place, intimately connected to the processor, for information being used when the PC is in the onmode. When the computer is shut down the RAM is emptied. The disc memories, on the other hand, are permanent storage facilities for information. There are three main types of disc memories two based on 19 magnetic technologies, the hard disc and the floppy disc, and one using optical technology, the CD-ROM. The hard disc is permanently installed in the CU and has the highest storage capacity, while the other two are inserted temporarily into special disc drive units.

3.1.2.2 Mouse and Keyboard The mouse and the keyboard are both tools to transform external information into a form that can be stored in one of the PCs memory units. Both mouse and keyboard basically contain plastics and a few electronic circuits to transfer the information provided by the PC operator. Thus, they contain no parts that differ significantly in production in terms of environmental aspects from the CU.

11

3.1.2.3 The Visual Display Unit The VDU is, on the other hand, an output device. This is where information is presented to the operator in an understandable fashion. In this project the type of VDU assessed is the cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor.

3.1.3

System Boundaries

For this study, the complete life cycle of the above described desktop PC system produced in China – starting with the extraction of the raw materials (metals, raw oil, natural gas, etc.) – until the disposal / recycling of its various devices is taken into account. The distribution and use phases are calculated using international trade data for a desktop PC system produced in China. Figure 7 shows a simplified version of the system like it has been modelled in the LCA software SIMAPRO.

Raw materials, Metals

Raw materials, Plastics

Raw materials, Chemicals

(Mother)board, mounting

Manual Dismantling Recovered Manual Dismantling Materials

Monitor Assembly

Final assembly personal computer

Hard Disk Drive Assembly

Keyboard Assembly

Use of PC

Manual Dismantling

Diode production

Capacitor production

Resistor production

Transistor production

IC, logic type, production

IC, memory type production

Printed wiring board production

LCD Panel Production

CRT Tube Production

Wafer prod. (all types)

Optical Drive Assembly

…

Power Transform. Assembly

Optical Mouse Assembly

Electricity Electricity

Mechanical EoL treatment Final disposal

Figure 7

3.1.4

Simplified system of the examined complete life cycle of a desktop PC system

Assumptions and Limitations

Due to the rather narrow timeframe of this project, it was already decided at the very beginning that only one part of the data will be collected for the specific situation in China, while for the other data, existing public LCI data shall be used. Herefore, the 12

ecoinvent1 database (version v1.3) – currently one of the most comprehensive and most up-to-date LCI database was used. Concerning specific datasets for electronic components and devices, data from a parallel project in our lab – establishing this type of data for the future version v2.0 of the ecoinvent database – are used for this project. All assumptions and limitations of this study can be summarized as the following:

1

The system boundary takes into account all PC systems produced in China. Not part of the system are all those PC systems produced outside China – independently from the fact if they are sold in China or elsewhere.

All components and parts that belong to the desktop PC, to either of the two screens, to the keyboard or to the mouse are included, while further peripherical devices (e.g. printer, scanner) are not part of the study.

The study considers devices with the technology used from 2000 to 2005.

Infrastructure (e.g. production sites, transport means, etc.) are included. Not included are impacts due to the support of these manufacturing facilities (e.g. maintenance of manufacturing plants).

Data for materials and processing processes are taken as far as possible from ecoinvent data v1.3. Specific data about electronics components and devices are from an Empa internal database (basis for future version v2.0 of the ecoinvent database).

For the distribution and use phase only the major markets were considered, namely China, Asia, Europe and North America.

The ecoinvent database (ecoinvent Centre 2006) is one of the most comprehensive inventory databases available at the moment. Version 1.3 of ecoinvent covers most production processes for plastics, metals, chemicals, energy generation and transport processes (with more than 2’500 unit processes). Specific processes for the electronics industry are not available in the actual version, but shall be included in the framework of the update to ecoinvent v2 (release November 2007). 13

3.2

Inventory Analysis

3.2.1

Purpose

In the inventory analysis, a process flow model of the technical system that is examined within the study – here a system to produce, transport, use and dispose a desktop PC system – is established. For each of the processes, all relevant inflows and outflows are collected.

3.2.2

Model description

Within the used model, three different levels of data can be distinguished – as shown in Figure 8. On the level 1, new specific data have been collected specifically for this study. As shown in Figure 8, this is only the case for the desktop computer itself as well as its use. On the level 2, existing datasets from the used database (ecoinvent data v1.3 plus pre-version of data for ecoinvent data v2.0) have been adapted to the project specific situation by small changes (e.g. the European electricity mix is replaced by a Chinese electricity mix, which is based itself on European production chains of the various fuels). On the last level (level 3), data from the mentioned database are used without any changes.

European electricity production

Legend:

CRT production

level 2 data (adapted data)

LCD, final assembly

LCD module

Raw materials

Printed Wiring Boards (various) Electronic components etc. etc.

level 1 data (new specific data)

level 3 data (ecoinvent data)

keyboard production mouse production Desktop Computer production

Use Desktop PC

EoL treatment (State-of-Art)

CRT production LCD, final assembly keyboard production mouse production Chinese and US electricity production

Figure 8

Model of the desktop PC system with the three different levels of data (more: see text)

14

3.2.3

Composition of the Desktop PC System

3.2.3.1 Desktop computer The major elements of an actual desktop computer are the casing, power supply, mother board, hard disk, CD- and floppy drives. Table 1 shows the weight and the material composition of the different parts of the here examined desktop computer.

Table 1

Components and materials for the here examined Chinese Desktop Computer, based on a Pentium IV processor (data taken from (Hikwama 2005))

Parts / component

Weight

Material

Dataset in this study here

Polyester, Al, PVC, Steel,

Printed wiring board, Desktop

Phenol, Epoxy, Cu, Pb,

PC motherboard, mounted, at

(g) Motherboard

970

Printed circuit board with

930

components

Cooling body for processor

40

Ceramic, PP, Si2O3

plant

Aluminum

Aluminium, production mix, wrough alloy, at plant

1.44MB, 3.5 floppy drive

671

Casing

340

Aluminum

Aluminium, primary, at plant

Mechanical part

234

steel

Steel, low-alloyed, at plant

Front cover

8

Aluminum

Aluminium, primary, at plant

PCB with components

31


Printed wiring board, surface


mounted, unspecified, at plant

Ceramic, PP, Si2O3 Hard disk drive

441

PCB with components

31

HDD, desktop computer, at plant

Polyester, Al, PVC, Steel, Phenol, Epoxy, Cu, Pb, Ceramic, Si2O3

Hard disk plates

101

Assumption: alloy aluminum with coating

Casing

308

Disk drive/ CD-ROM

884

Mechanical part

287

PCB with components

145

Aluminum CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive, desktop computer, at plant

Steel Polyester, Al, PVC, Steel, Phenol,

Epoxy,

Cu,

Pb,

Ceramic, PP, Si2O3 Casing Front cover (plastic) ASTEC Power supply

433

Aluminum

19

ABS

1131

Power supply unit, China model, at plant

Electrolytic capacitors

53

Al, Cu, Phenolic resin paper,

Part of PWB

PS Inductor coils

65

PVC, insulated Cu+ Ferrite

Part of PWB

Transformers

122

PVC, insulated Cu+ Ferrite

Part of PWB

Cabinet

561

Steel

Adapted to specific weight

Cooling body

81

Aluminum


Heat sink

54

Aluminum


15

PCB with components

79

Cable and plug

116

Desk top cabinet

5’471

Metal frame

2’736




(with average composition like

Ceramic, PP, Si2O3

in ecoinvent v2)

Cu, PVC, PS


Electro plated steel

Steel, low-alloyed, at plant + zinc coating, pieces

Hard disk socket

263

Electro plated steel

Steel, low-alloyed, at plant + zinc coating, pieces

Cover

2’200

Steel

Steel, low-alloyed, at plant

Front

272

ABS

ABS copolymer, at plant

Cables

363

Flat band cable

181

Cu, PS

Mains cable

181

Cu, PVC

Cable, ribbon cable, 20pin, with plugs at plant

2’390

Packaging for Actual desktop computer Box

1’800

Cardboard

Corrugated board, recycling fibre, double, at plant

Insert

415

Cardboard

Corrugated board, recycling fibre, double, at plant

Packaging Material

175

EPS, Sponge

Polystyrene, expandable, at plant + stretch blow moulding

TOTAL

12’358

3.2.3.2 Further devices (CRT Monitor, LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse) All further devices have been modelled simply by using the respective ecoinvent datasets (level 2 and 3 data) – with a change in the electricity input (Chinese mix) for those parts of these devices that are produced in China. The split between China and abroad is established based to the following table and figure (Table 2 and Figure 9 respectively).

Table 2

Geographical distribution of a desktop PC system produced in China Lifespan

China

Abroad

CRT display

50%

80%

20%

LCD display

50%

95%

5%

PWB

40%

60%

IC

5%

95%

others

90%

10%

PC assembly

100%

0

Use stage

90%

10%

End-of-life

90%

10%

Manufacturing

16

Geographical allocation of PC

Pre-manufacturing China

Others 90%

CRT 40%

Guangdong 40%

LCD 47.5%

Pre-manufacturing Abroad

IC 5%

PCB 40%

Tianjin/ Beijing 20%

Jiangsu/zhejiang/shanghai 40%

PCB 60%

IC 95%

South Korean 15.43%

Taiwan 17.45%

CRT 10%

EU 11.58%

LCD 2.5%

Japan 18.12%

Others 10%

ASEAN 23.93%

Others 13.5%

PC manufacturing & assembly China

Beijng 15%

Shanghai 20%

Huizhou Guangdong 15%

Suzhou Jiangsu 20%

Wuxi Jiangsu 15%

Use stage China 90%

Xiamen Zhejiang 15%

Use stage Abroad 10%

31 provinces Shanghai 8.8%

Guangdong 8.6%

Beijing 8.4%

Zhejiang 6%

Jiangsu 5.9%

U.S.A 24.8%

Hong Kong CN 24.4%

EU 23.8%

Japan 8.47%

ASEAN 7.61%

Others 11.8%

End-of-life stage China

Figure 9

End-of-life stage abroad

Geographical situation of production and distribution of desktop PC systems produced in China

From Figure 9 it can be seen that the high-tech products (like e.g. logic ICs or LCD modules) are mainly produced abroad. On the other hand, general parts such as PWB, ferrous-metal and non-ferrous-metal, or packaging materials, are mainly produced directly in China.

17

3.2.4

Transport Data

3.2.4.1 Manufacturing of Components and Devices Currently, more than 50% of the desktop PCs are produced in Beijing, the Jiangsu province, Shanghai, the Zhejiang and the Guangdong provinces; more than 50% of CRT and LCD display are produced in Suzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing and Tianjin, and more than 50% of PWB and other components are produced in the Guangdong and the Jiangsu provinces. An overview of these locations is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10

Location of the leading desktop PC, screen and components producers in China

For this study, it was assumed that PC, CRT- and LCD-displays as well as the PWB are to 100% manufactured in the above mentioned locations. Furthermore it was assumed that all further components as well as the materials are distributed similar like the PWB. This results in individual transport distances according to the following table.

18

Table 3

Distance estimation [km] for the transports of screens and PWB towards the desktop PC producing companies in China

Desktop PC producer Located in

Market proportion

PC display producer

PWB producer

Suzhou

Tianjin

Shanghai

Nanjing

Guangzhou

Kunshan

35%

15%

35%

15%

70%

30%

Beijing

15%

1256

100

1241

1000

2238

1256

Shanghai

20%

95

1144

20

200

1438

100

Suzhou

18%

20

1096

95

200

1397

100

Wuxi

15%

50

1096

95

200

1397

20

Xiamen

12%

991

1950

991

991

616

900

Huizhou

20%

1364

2155

1364

1364

50

1397

Hence, the resulting total transport distances within the production are 1’100km per unit for CRT and LCD displays, 1’250km per unit for PWB as well as other electronic components and materials. This distance is split up into 80% transport on the road and 20% transport by train respectively.

However, more than 90% of so-called “high-tech” products (including components like e.g. integrated circuits (IC) or LCD modules) are imported from ASEAN, Japan, South Korean, Taiwan (CN), EU, and U.S.A. According to the actual proportion of the origin of these products and average distances between China and these foreign countries the total amount of transports for such parts / components is calculated in the following table.

Table 4

Distance estimation [km] for PWB distributed in worldwide (1 own estimations in this study; from ecoinvent). Train2

Location

(Malaysia) Japan Taiwan CN

data

Road2

Shipment Ocean

ASEAN

2

China

Abroad

China

Abroad

Domain

Domain

Domain

Domain

25%

22001

600

600

100

100

18%

5401

600

600

100

100

430

1

600

600

100

100

1

600

600

100

100

600

600

100

100

20%

South Korean

16%

410

EU (U.S.A)

21%

213002

This results in a total average transport distance for each foreign component of 5’310 km by ocean ship, 1’310 km by train and 200 km by road.

19

3.2.4.2 Distribution The distribution phase is rather complex – and split up into a national distribution (for the part not going into exportation) and an international distribution. According to Chinese trade data (reported in Table 14 - Table 24 in the Annex of this report here), in 2005 about 14% of the produced desktop PCs have been exported.

On the national level, the distribution involves the spread of the PC product to 31 domestic provinces. Within China, in 2005, the distribution means for commodities were highway, railway and water carriage, which accounted 73%, 15%, 12% respectively (Center 2005). For electronic products, road and railway are the primary choices for distribution. Hence, in this study a distribution of 80% by road and 20% by train is used for the complete desktop PC system (i.e. desktop PC, screen, keyboard and mouse). LCI data for transportation of the finished product between the manufacturer and domestic wholesalers or retailers was calculated based on road travelled by diesel engine trucks and electric engine train in China. As already shown in Figure 10, more than 50% of the desktop PC systems are produced in Beijing, the Jiangsu province, Shanghai, the Zhejiang and the Guangdong provinces. It was defined that PCs are all manufactured in these locations. The sales proportions in the 31 Chinese provinces are shown in details in Table 28 in the annex of this report. According to these proportions of PC consumption in 31 provinces, the total output volume of PC consumed in China, the locations of PC producers and the highway (road) distances from producing to consumption provinces, an average transport distance of 1269 km is calculated per desktop PC unit.

On the international level, it is assumed for this study, that all transports are established using ship transport – and no airfreight transports are taken into account. For the transport distances, own estimations, based on webtools like Google Earth have been used together with the standard distances reported in the ecoinvent methodology (ecoinvent Centre 2006). The resulting numbers are shown in the following table.

Table 5

Distance estimation [km] for the export of Chinese desktop PC systems (1 own estimations in this study; 2 data from ecoinvent). Train2

Location

Road2

Shipment Ocean

China

Abroad

China

Abroad

Domain

Domain

Domain

Domain

Asia

50%

7701

600

300

100

50

North America

25%

213002

600

600

100

100

Europe

25%

213002

600

600

100

100

20

3.2.4.3 End-of-Life (e-waste treatment) No data on transport distances in the end-of-life (EoL) phase were available about the actual situation in China. Hence, in this study here the EoL model is based on European transport distances, as used for the new data of ecoinvent.

3.2.5

Data of the use phase

In this study, a 50:50 split between LCD and CRT technology is assumed. CRT and LCD use different mechanisms to produce images on screen, which result in different energy use rates. Furthermore, this study distinguishes between two patterns of PC use: PC use at home and PC use at the office. The lifetime of the PC is set in all here examined cases to six years. For each case there are three different power consumption modes, going from a state of active use to a state of shut-down. These three modes, from greatest power consumption to least, are typically entitled active mode, standby or sleep mode, and active-off. Hence, a total of 12 different levels of energy consumption have to be distinguished. They are listed in details in Table 6 on the following page.

Thereby home and office users of a computer do not follow the same use patterns. The percentage breakdown of office and home use of PC in the China is deducted from the following figure and assumed as Office: 40%; Home: 60%. 60% 50% 40% 30%

51.81%

20% 10%

35.24% 12.95%

0%

office

Figure 11

home

office and home

Percentages of PC’s Office- and Home-Environment Users in China (2006) (Tianji 2006)

21

Table 6

Average energy consumption of PC’s use stage (per unit) (Note: 1. Including key board and mouse. CRT and LCD monitor account for 50% and 50% respectively.) Office use in China is 252 days per year. Home use is assumed 365 days per year.( * ecoinvent data.)

Office use

Home use

office use

Home use

3.2.6

Computer mode1

h

kWh/h*

desktop, CRT monitor, active mode

6

0.15

desktop, CRT monitor, standby/sleep mode

2

0.045

desktop, CRT monitor, off mode

18

0.005

desktop, CRT monitor, active mode

3

0.15

desktop, CRT monitor, standby/sleep mode

3

0.045

desktop, CRT monitor, off mode

18

0.005

desktop, LCD monitor, active mode

6

0.085

desktop, LCD monitor, standby/sleep mode

2

0.03

desktop, LCD monitor, off mode

18

0.0035

desktop, LCD monitor, active mode

3

0.085

desktop, LCD monitor, standby/sleep mode

3

0.03

desktop, LCD monitor, off mode

18

0.0035

Data of the end-of life phase

3.2.6.1 Possibilities for EoL treatment of computers There are many options are available for the End-of-Life (EoL) treatment of a desktop PC. In principle the following possibilities can be distinguished: •

Reuse. It is often a result of reselling, involves continued use of the PC for the purpose for which it was built, and is considered to occur within its originally intended useful life. Reuse does not usually entail major repairs or modifications, and is a preferred EoL option because the original materials contained in it are put to use for an extended period of time, thus conserving valuable natural resources (energy and raw materials) needed to manufacture new monitors or to dispose of discarded ones. However, reuse could result in reduced energy efficiency during the use stage as e.g. monitor manufacturers continually strive to improve the energy efficiency of their products.

•

Remanufacturing. This is a viable option for those devices or components no longer used but still functional that could be refurbished (upgraded or restored to working conditions) at a cost lower than that of manufacturing a new device, to be sold again in domestic or foreign markets. Here again, energy and raw materials are conserved, though some new parts/components may be required. Another important benefit here is solid waste reduction, achieved by diverting the materials away from the landfill.

22

Remanufacturing processes span a wide range of activities, from as little as replacing button tops to as extensive as testing and replacing PWB or transformers. •

Recycling. This involves recovering the individual components (recycling of functions) and materials (material recycling) from a device, to be used in the production of same type of devices (closed-loop recycling) or in other products (open-loop recycling). Identification, sorting, cleaning, and further processing (e.g., smelting) are often required before the recovered materials can be used again. Though materials recycling involve several processing steps, it results in most cases in a conservation of energy and raw materials, and diversion of materials that would otherwise have been landfilled, through the creation of new, desirable products that are in-line with current market demand.

•

Disposal. A portion of devices is usually similar to municipal solid waste (MSW) sent to incinerators or municipal waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities for energy recovery. Landfilling solid waste in hazardous or non-hazardous landfill sites is the least preferred option, since all the other options have some expected environmental benefits.

3.2.6.2 Data used in this study Here, the EoL process foreseen for ecoinvent data v2.0 is used. This represents the state-ofthe-art treatment of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste – i.e. it is a picture of how a formal e-waste treatment channel could work currently. The here used data could be characterized in brief as the following: •

Mixture of manual dismantling of devices (23%) and mechanical treatment (e.g. shreddering) after a manual de-toxification (77%);

•

Specific further treatment steps for cables (shredding, grinding, separation of plastics and copper), batteries (various metallurgical treatment possibilities) and various waste fractions (e.g. capacitors -> incineration in a hazardous waste incinerator);

•

50% plastics recovery (e.g. recycling) and 50% incineration in a municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI).

The informal sector present in China is not taken into account in the LCA study here due to a lack of respective data.

23

3.3

Impact Assessment

At the centre of this specific part of the overall project is the examination of the complete life cycle of a desktop PC system, including visual display unit, keyboard, and mouse (as described in the preceding chapter). As standard LCIA methodology, the method of EcoIndicator 99 (for details see 2.2.4) is used for determining the results. In a first part of the results (chapter 3.3.1), the complete life cycle is examined. The most important contributors to the impact of the different life stages are identified and shown in more details. Last but not least, as a sensitivity analysis, the complete life cycle is assessed with further LCIA methods in order to estimate the influence of the here chosen LCIA method on the overall result. The influence of the international trade (i.e. in which market the here presented computer is sold) is examined in a separate chapter (chapter 3.3.2). There, the changes in the impacts of distribution and subsequent use of the PC system as a function of the target market are shown and discussed. As the manufacturing phase is shown to be important within the complete life cycle, the second part of this study (chapter 3.3.3) deals with this phase and its various devices in more details. The final result part (chapter 3.3.4) deals with the EoL phase, showing a more detailed overview of the substitutable primary material efforts due to a recycling, that can be seen as up-to-date for the current status here in Europe.

3.3.1

Environmental impacts along the complete life cycle of a PC

The examination of the environmental impacts related to a desktop PC system (as described in details in chapter 3.2) produced in China and used in China and abroad results in the environmental impacts shown in Figure 12. As this figure shows clearly, the distribution step is of the least importance compared with the remaining life stages. From these remaining three life cycle stages, manufacturing and use seem to be of rather similar importance, while in the end-of-life (EoL) phase substantial environmental benefits are possible. Within the here examined life cycle of a desktop PC system, the environmental impact of the use phase is only due to the use of electricity in the respective geographical area (i.e. the US electricity mix for the amount of PC systems sold to North America!). Hence, the contributions to the impact due to the use phase are equal to those of the respective electricity mixes. In case of the two remaining important phases, e.g. manufacturing and EoL, the respective contributions are shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14. From this figure it can clearly be seen that the main impact is in these stages due to consumption of fossil fuels – i.e. the oil and gas resources as well as the emissions of fossil CO2, SO2 and NOx are important parts of the overall impact. Another important part is due to the metals – as resources, but also as emissions of metals either to air or to water.

24

45


30

15

0 Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

End of Life

-15

-30

Human Health

Figure 12

Ecosystem Quality

Resources

Global average environmental impacts (in Eco-Indicator 99 points) of the complete life cycle (i.e. manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life treatment) of a desktop PC system produced in China and used globally.

Remaining 21%

crude oil (Res.) 17%

natural gas (Res.) 12%

arsenic (water) 5%

metals (air) 8%

metal (Res.) 6%

PM2.5 (air) 9% nitrogen oxides (air)

Figure 13

sulphur dioxid (air) 8%

carbon dioxide, fossil (air) 6%

Manufacturing phase - the most important exchanges with nature (resource extraction / emissions to air, water, soil) contributing to the overall environmental impact of this specific life stage.

A more detailed insight into the phase of manufacturing – including more information about the origin of these important impacts – can be found in chapter 3.3.3 dealing in details with the most important devices within such a desktop PC system. As already shown in Figure 12 the last life phase – i.e. the EoL phase – leads not to an overall environmental impact but to an overall environmental benefit if state-of-the-art recycling technology is assumed. In Figure 14 the origin of this benefit is shown in more

25

details. It can be seen that (quite similar to the manufacturing phase), the saved fossil resources have a major contribution to this benefit. Further contributors are the saved metal resources, saved land-use amounts, as well as SO2 and NOx emissions to air plus As and Cd emissions to water. The only positive impact in terms of Eco-Indicators points is the emission of Cu to water (negative environmental impact). This is originating from the incineration of the various residue fractions from mechanical treatment of the different devices. A more detailed insight into the phase of dismantling / recycling of a desktop computer – including more information about the origin of these various benefits – can be found in chapter 3.3.4.

remaining part Cu (water) As & Cd (water) metals (air) PM10 (air) nitrogen oxides (air) sulphur dioxid (air) carbon dioxide foss. (air) land-use (Res.) natural gas (Res.) crude oil (Res.) metal (Res.) -20%

Figure 14

-15%

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

End-of-Life (EoL) phase - the most important exchanges with nature (resource extraction / emissions to air, water, soil) contributing to the overall environmental impact of this specific life stage (negative values indicate an environmental benefit)

3.3.1.1 Sensitivity analysis – impact of the chosen impact assessment method The complete life cycle – examined with the method of the Eco-Indicator 99, but only for the systems used in China (not for the export models) – is examined here with several other LCIA methods, in order to estimate if there is a bias in the results due to the chosen LCIA method. In Figure 15, the results of the Eco-Indicator 99 is show in comparison with the Swiss Eco-point method (Umweltbelastungs-Punkte - UBP version 1997), and the key factors CED (cumulative energy demand) and global warming (according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - IPCC).

26

Eco-Indicator'99

Manufacturing

Distribution

UBP'97

Use

End of Life Manufacturing

Human Health

Ecosystem Quality

Resources

Distribution

CED, non-renewable

Figure 15

Use

Use

End of Life

UBP'97, Total

Cumulative Energy Demand

Manufacturing

Distribution

Global Warming Potential (IPCC)

End of Life

CED, renewable

Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

End of Life

GWP 100a

Comparison of the overall environmental impacts in the life cycle of a desktop PC system with various LCIA methods: Eco-Indicator 99 (top, left), Swiss Eco-points (top, right), Cumulative Energy demand (bottom, left) and Global Warming (bottom, right)

All four methods and factors respectively, show a rather similar picture – having the manufacturing and the use phase as the most important ones. The distribution stage can be neglected in according the LCIA methods – while however, the EoL shows for the Swiss Ecopoint method a different picture than for the three other methods. This is due to the high weighting of the copper emissions to water – resulting in an overall impact for the EoL phase. Another important and widely used LCIA method is the so-called CML’01 method. This is a method that doesn’t aggregate the various environmental impacts – but keeps them all separated. Hence no overall impact can be calculated.

Figure 16 on the next page shows the results of the overall life cycle of a desktop PC system produced and used in China expressed with the most important impact factors of the CML’01 method. As can be seen from this figure, with one exception all factors are showing a rather similar picture to the aggregated result of the Eco-Indicator 99 method (in Figure 12). There are small differences – e.g. manufacturing has a higher impact than the use phase in case of “eutrophication” and “ozone layer depletion”. The exception of this conclusion is the factor “freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity” as in this factor, the EoL phase has the highest environmental impact (higher than use and manufacturing), due to the high Cu emissions from the incineration of plastics from e-waste in Swiss municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) plants.

27

CML / abiotic resources

Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

CML / global warming 100a

End of Life

Manufacturing

CML / acidification

Distribution

Use

End of Life

Manufacturing

Use

End of Life

Manufacturing

Use

fresh water aquatic ecotox.

Figure 16

End of Life

Distribution

Use

End of Life

terrestrial ecotoxicity

CML / freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity

Distribution

Use

End of Life

human toxicity

Manufacturing

Distribution

CML / terrestrial ecotoxicity

Manufacturing

Use

End of Life

photochemical oxidation

CML / human toxicity

Distribution

Use

CML / photochemical oxidation

ozone layer depletion (ODP)

Manufacturing

Distribution

eutrophication

CML / ozone layer depletion

Distribution

End of Life

CML / eutrophication

acidification

Manufacturing

Use

global warming (GWP100)

abiotic depletion

Manufacturing

Distribution

CML / marine aquatic ecotoxicity

End of Life

Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

End of Life

marine aquatic ecotoxicity

The overall life cycle of a desktop personal computer, evaluated with the CML’01 method.

All in all, these figures here justify sufficiently the use of only the Eco-Indicator 99 as LCIA method for the further examination within this study here.

28

3.3.2

Key environmental impacts due to international trade

3.3.2.1 Environmental impact of the distribution to the various global markets Based on the transport means and distances described in chapter 3.2.4.2 (Table 5), the resulting environmental impact due to the distribution of one desktop PC system produced in China to the major market regions has been calculated and is shown in Figure 17.

1


0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 China

Europe

America

Human Health

Figure 17

Asia

Ecosystem Quality

Average

Resources

Environmental impact (in Eco-Indicator 99 points) of the distribution of one desktop PC system produced in China to the four major markets (more details see chapter 3.2.4.2) as well as global average value, based on the current export rates.

It can be seen from Figure 17 that between the lowest load due to the distribution (i.e. to the other Asian countries) and the highest load (to Europe and North America) a factor of more than 5 can be found – however, even the latter ones have an environmental load that is still about a factor of 40 smaller than the manufacturing phase of the desktop PC system examined here. Hence, the distribution is even on an international scale of no relevance for the here examined desktop PC system.

3.3.2.2 Environmental impact of the use phase in the various global markets As already shown in Figure 12, manufacturing and use phase are of rather similar importance. The resulting impacts from using one desktop PC system produced in China in different geographical regions with different electricity mixes are shown in Figure 18.

29

45


36

27

18

9

0

Manuf.

China

Europe Human Health

Figure 18

America

Asia

Ecosystem Quality

Average Resources

Environmental impact (in Eco-Indicator 99 points) of the use phase – results for the use of one desktop PC system produced in China in the four major markets (more details see chapter 3.2.4.2) as well as global average value, based on the current export rates. For comparison reason, the total load during the manufacturing phase of a desktop PC system is shown on the left side (row “Manuf.”).

There is a difference between the Chinese electricity mix as the one with the highest environmental load, and the European electricity mix with the lowest load of about 30% lower however, even the latter one leads to a use phase that still has about 80% of the environmental load of the manufacturing of this desktop PC system. Going one step further down – on a national electricity grid level – would make the differences even bigger as national electricity mixes in Europe vary very much. In the framework of this study such more detailed analysis has not been established.

3.3.3

Key environmental impacts in the manufacturing phase

3.3.3.1 Comparison of the various parts of a desktop PC system Within the manufacturing phase, a comparison is established between the various parts that belong to a complete Desktop PC – i.e. the desktop computer itself, the screen (whereas two different technologies are in use – CRT and LCD – both accounted as 100%), the keyboard and the mouse. A comparison of these different devices is shown in Figure 19. It can clearly be seen that the most important devices are the desktop PC itself as well as the visual display units – independently from the actual technology chosen. The same fact can also be seen in Figure 20, showing a flow diagram of the most important environmental impacts of the manufacturing of the here examined desktop PC system (i.e. a system with 50% CRT and 50% LCD screen). From this figure it can be seen that the integrated circuit (IC), logic type, is the most important process step within the overall production chain.

30


20

15

10

5

0 Desktop

Figure 19

CRT-Screen

LCD-Screen

Human Health

Ecosystem Quality

Keyboard

Mouse

Resources

Environmental loads of the different parts of a desktop PC system. The production of one computer is compared with the production efforts of a 17-inch CRT screen, a 17-inch LCD screen, a keyboard and an optical mouse.

In Figure 21 it is shown that this impact is due to the following three aspects of the IC production:

the used heat energy (here produced by heavy fuel oil);

the wafer production process (and there especially the disposal of waste out of the wafer production in a corresponding landfill site);

the used amount of gold (precious metal) – and the therefore requested efforts in mining and further processing.

Within the last part – i.e. the used amount of gold – in the end, it is again the amount of fossil fuels (here diesel and natural gas) but also the disposal of sulphidic tailings (i.e. non-gold containing raw materials in the mining site that are put onto mining waste heaps) that are at the origin of this impact.

31

Figure 20

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a desktop computer system. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

Figure 21

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a logic type IC. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 2.5% to the overall result.

32

3.3.3.2 Manufacturing of the desktop PC According to Figure 19, the desktop computer itself has the highest environmental impact of all the different devices used here. Hence, a more detailed view on this specific device is done in this chapter here.

Production of a Desktop Personal Computer in China production packaging


12

cables 5% housing 8% PSU 11%

10 8

CD-ROM 8%

6

3%

1%

motherboard 54%

HDD 6% floppy disk 4%

4 2

Figure 22

Human Health

Ecosystem Quality

production

packaging

cables

housing

PSU

CD-ROM

HDD

floppy disk

motherboard

0

Resources

Environmental loads of the different pieces within a desktop PC. The production efforts (right side) are compared with the composition shown in Table 1.

In Figure 22 and Figure 23 it can be seen that the motherboard is responsible for more than 50% of the overall environmental load in the production of a desktop PC. All remaining parts (drives, but also housing or the power supply unit, PSU) are only of minor interest from an environmental point of view. Similar conclusion can be drawn for the production itself (i.e. the infrastructure, transport amounts to bring all pieces to the assembly site, the used energy as well as the infrastructure, e.g. the building) – this part is only of minor interest compared to the load due to the motherboard. From Figure 23 it can be seen– again – that the IC production arises as the most important part within the complete desktop PC production. Due to the importance of the IC, actually the complete motherboard is getting the most important part within such a computer from an environmental point of view.

33

Figure 23

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a desktop PC. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

3.3.3.3 Manufacturing of the CRT monitor According to Figure 19, a 17-inch CRT screen has the second highest environmental impact of all the different devices used here. Hence, a more detailed view on this specific device is done in this chapter. From Figure 24 it can be seen that there are three important parts within a CRT screen – the printed wiring board (due to the ICs), the used chromium steel as well as the CRT tube itself. In Figure 25 it can be seen that these three parts – CRT tube, electronics and housing – are responsible for more than 80% of the environmental impact of such a device. As for the desktop computer, it can be concluded that the production itself (i.e. the infrastructure, transport amounts to bring all pieces to the assembly site, the used energy as well as the infrastructure, e.g. the building) is only of minor interest compared to the load due to the three above mentioned parts of a 17-inch CRT device.

34

Figure 24

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a 17-inch CRT screen. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

production 5%

packaging

2% Production of a CRT-Screen (17-inch) in China cables 9%


7

CRT tube 33%

6 5

housing 30%

4

electronics 21%

3 2 1

Human Health

Figure 25

Ecosystem Quality

production

packaging

cables

housing

electronics

CRT tube

0

Resources

Environmental loads of the different pieces within a 17-inch CRT Screen.

35

3.3.3.4 Manufacturing of the LCD monitor According to Figure 19, the 17-inch LCD screen has the third highest environmental impact of the different devices used here. Hence, a more detailed view on this device is done in this chapter. production

19% (17-inch) in China Production of the LCD-Screen


9

packaging 2%

LCD module 60%

housing 3% electronics 16%

6

3

Human Health

Figure 26

Ecosystem Quality

production

packaging

housing

electronics

LCD module

0

Resources

Environmental loads of the different pieces within a 17-inch LCD screen.

In Figure 26 it can be seen that the LCD module is the most important part – with about 60% of the total load of such a device – while the electronics part is only about 16%. Within the LCD module, the main environmental impact is due to the assembly efforts (i.e. due to the production) as shown in Figure 27. This – compared to the two other devices before – much higher impact due to the production efforts can also be seen in Figure 26, as the “production” (i.e. the infrastructure, transport amounts to bring all pieces to the assembly site, the used energy as well as the infrastructure, e.g. the building) of the very final assembly makes still 20% of the impact of the complete LCD screen.

36

Figure 27

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a LCD module for a 17-inch LCD screen. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

Within the production efforts, the main environmental load is due to the energy consumption (heat and electricity) as well as the high infrastructure (the amount of buildings and chromium steel for the clean room technology is much higher than for “traditional” production sites) requirements for the LCD production. From Figure 28 it can be seen that also in the complete LCD the IC production arises to be one of the most relevant parts within the complete production. And hence, the subsequent PWBs (e.g. the electronics part) are shown as important parts of the overall device here (see also Figure 26).

37

Figure 28

3.3.4

Environmental loads of the different steps within the manufacturing of a 17-inch LCD screen. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

Environmental impacts of the end-of-life phase

As already shown in the figures about the complete life cycle (see chapter 3.3.1), the here used data for the final treatment of a desktop PC system leads to an environmental benefit instead of an impact, compared to the other life phases examined. This is due to the fact that recycling leads to the recovery of e.g. precious metals – and as they can be used again in products, a similar amount of primary production hasn’t to be done. In brief – in the data, the respective amount of primary production is deducted for this process step here, leading to an overall result < 0 – i.e. leading to an environmental benefit. However, if looking into details in the EoL phase, it can be seen that there are of course first environmental impacts due to the activities and only then environmental benefits due to the recycled amount of metals, glass and plastics resulting from the here assumed state-of-the art e-waste treatment system. In Figure 29 these various impacts are shown (summed up as “transports”: i.e. all transport steps between the various players within the overall EoL system / “auxillaries”: all chemical substances used within the various steps / “energy”: the energy consumption due to these process steps / “disposal”: all direct impacts – mainly due to emissions to air/water – from these activities in the various steps) as well as the resulting benefits (summed up as “energy benefits”: not used energy, especially for the primary metal production / “metal benefits”: amount of primary metals and/or metal resources that can be saved / “other benefits”: remaining parts, mainly auxiliaries not used during the extraction/treatment of the various primary metals).

38

other benefits

Environmental benefits

metal benefits

energy benefits

transports

auxillaries

Environmental impacts

energy

disposal -0.7

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

Figure 29

Environmental impacts and benefits due to the EoL of a desktop PC system.

Figure 30

Environmental loads (red) and benefits (green arrows) respectively of the different steps within the End-of-Life treatment of a complete desktop PC system. Flow diagram out of the used LCA software system – showing all those flows that are contributing to more than 5% to the overall result.

39

From the flow system shown in Figure 30, it can be seen that the biggest benefits are due to the recovered copper, iron (steel), aluminium as well as the recovered precious metals – while the process steps leading to an environmental load are hardly visible. The most important ones in this sector are the incineration of the residues from the mechanical treatment of computer and screens as well as the assumed incineration of the LCD module itself.

3.3.5

Environmental impacts allocated to the Chinese and international industry

A split of the overall environmental impact of this study into the part that occurs in China and the remaining part, occurring abroad of China is not possible. The main reason is the fact that within the various chains, different parts of the production can be situated outside China. As in each step import / export of the raw materials, materials or components can occur – it is not possible to make a clear picture of this question here. Nevertheless, due to the fact that high-tech products like integrated circuits (ICs) or the LCD modules seem to have a major environmental impact, it can be concluded that there is a relevant amount of the impact associated to the here examined desktop PC system occurring abroad from China – and hence, Chinese companies as well as the authorities have only a limited influence concerning the regulation of these processes in order to reduce the respective environmental impact.

40

3.4

Interpretation of the LCA study

The here established LCA study shows that the actual desktop PC (desktop computer without visual display unit) contributes most to the environmental load of a desktop PC system, followed by the VDU (CRT and LCD respectively). The two requested accessories (i.e. keyboard and mouse) have an insignificant environmental load compared to the other units. Significant environmental impacts were identified during manufacturing and use phase, while the distribution phase shows up as insignificant even if international distribution is assumed. The impact of the EoL phase depends much on the assumed recycling and disposal technology. The latter one can even result in a benefit instead of a load in case of a state-ofthe art recycling system like e.g. in practice in Switzerland. As a key environmental impact in the manufacturing, the production of integrated circuits (ICs) has been clearly identified. There, the energy consumption of the production process itself, but also the wafer production and the consumption of precious metals (e.g. gold) are the most important contributors to this high environmental load of the IC production. Obviously, the high impact of ICs lead to an important impact of mounted PWB in all here examined devices. In case of the two screen technologies, the actual screen (e.g. the CRT and. the LCD module) shows also a high impact. While in case of CRT this is due to the amount of used glass – in the LCD case this is mainly due to high energy consumption, partly due to the clean room technology necessary, within the actual production step. Choi et al. (Choi, Shin et al. 2006), Hikwama (Hikwama 2005) and Seungdo (Seungdo K.. 2001) found rather similar results in LCA studies on personal computer, PC components and CRT displays respectively. The use phase is only due to electricity consumption – as no other aspects are taken into account during this life stage. Hence, the here shown impact is due to the way how the electricity is produced. The more renewable energy resources used here – the less high this impact would be. The final process steps – summed up as EoL phase – lead to a clear environmental benefit if a formal and modern, up-to-date technical system is assumed, like here in this study. Then the impacts due to the various treatment steps (shredder, incinerator, etc.) are more than compensated by the benefits due to the recycled amount of materials (mainly metals). Main benefit is due to the recycling of copper, iron and precious metals. All in all, it can clearly be concluded from this study, that the manufacturing and the use of such devices are of highest environmental importance. Within such devices, the integrated chips (ICs) and the LCD modules are those parts with the highest impact.

41

4

Key Environmental Impacts of Major Chinese E-Products

4.1

Key characteristics of the examined Chinese E-Products

A rough material composition of the examined electric and electronic devices (i.e. CRT TV, air conditioner, washing machine, refrigerator, and for comparison reason again the desktop PC system) is summarized in Table 7.

Table 7

Composition data of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and personal computers (GWMR 2005) Plastics

Aluminum

Copper

Steel

Glass

Other

E-product kg

Refrigerator 22.80

1.710

2.28

28.50

0.570

1.710

9.90

0.825

1.10

14.58

0.275

1.100

5.06

3.220

7.82

25.30

0.000

4.600

6.88

0.598

0.90

2.99

17.043

1.495

5.24

0.873

2.037

11.35

8.148

1.746

(57kg) Washing machine (27.5kg) Air conditioner (46kg) CRT TV (29.9kg) PC incl. CRT (29.1kg)

Based on this composition data, a simplified LCA of the manufacturing of these devices can be calculated by taking the following data for the various here listed material amounts: •

Plastics: 50% ABS, 50% polyethylene (high density);

•

Aluminium: 100% aluminium production (mix – i.e. primary and secondary production in a relation according to European production);

•

Copper: 100% copper production (mix);

•

Steel: 75% low-alloyed steel and 25% chromium steel (i.e. high alloyed steel);

•

Glass: 100% flat glass

•

Others: 5 to 70% PWB (i.e. electronics) and the remaining part as average of all above shown other materials (plastics, metals and glass).

42

The electricity consumption data for the use phase of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and desktop PC are shown in Table 8. On the basis of the production data 2005 (see Table 14 - Table 24 in the annex) and the specific electricity consumption, their total annual electricity consumption was calculated.

Table 8

4.2

Lifespan, specific electricity consumption and total, annual electricity consumption (of all in 2005 in China produced such devices) of personal computer, CRT TV, air conditioner, washing machine and refrigerator (http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/appliances)

Average

electricity

Total electricity

lifespan

consumption

consumption

[years]

[kWh/per year]

[GWh/per year]

Desktop PC

6

204

8’911

CRT TV

10

240

18’941

Air conditioner

11

1’440

81’893

Washing machine

12

114

2’790

Refrigerator

13

876

22’881

Global environmental impact of the various devices

In a first step, a simplified LCA, based on the information given in Table 7 has been calculated, using standard LCA data from the database ecoinvent data v1.3. As in the preceding chapter, the results are expressed with the LCIA method “Eco-Indicator 99”, but here not on an absolute scale. Instead, a relative scale is used, with 100% representing the Eco-Indicator 99 points for the production of a desktop PC system (i.e. the result of the manufacturing phase reported in more details in chapter 3.3.1). The so calculated results are shown in Figure 31 on the next page. Similar to the desktop PC, all other examined devices have two clearly dominating life stages – i.e. the manufacturing or production and the use of the respective device. Again, the distribution (not only in China, but on a global level) has such a small impact that its result is hardly visible in the various graphs. Nevertheless, the distribution phase has been adjusted using the respective average weights of the examined devices. Last but not least, a state-ofthe-art End-of-Life treatment leads in all cases to a clear environmental benefit of this life stage. When comparing the various devices to each other, it can be seen that the manufacturing of a refrigerator and an air conditioner has a higher environmental load than a desktop PC, while the production of a washing machine or of a CRT TV lead to less impact than the PC. More details concerning the manufacturing phase can be found in the next chapter.

43

In the use phase (calculated like for the desktop PC system in chapter 3.3 – i.e. taking into account that one part of the devices is sold in China, while the remaining devices are exported on a global level), especially the air conditioner and the refrigerator have much higher results than the other three devices – mainly due to the fact that they have a much higher amount of working hours per year, compared to the three other devices. From the other devices, the CRT TV is the one that is used most – resulting in a higher load of the use phase than the two remaining devices. CRT TV 250%

200%

200% in % of PC production

in % of PC production

Desktop PC System 250%

150% 100% 50% 0% Manufacturing

Distribution

Use

330%

150% 100% 50% 0%

End of Life

Manufacturing

-50%

-50%

-100%

-100%

Distribution

Use

End of Life

Air Conditioner 250%


200%

2100%


Distribution

Use

-50%

End of Life

-200 %

-100% Refrigerator 250%

200%

200% in % of PC production


Washing Machine 250%


Distribution

Use

100% 50% 0%

End of Life

Manufacturing

-50%

-50%

-100%

-100%

Figure 31

1500%

150%

Distribution

Use

End of Life

Global average environmental impact (Eco-Indicator 99 points – in % of production of one desktop PC) of the complete life cycle of one desktop PC (see also chapter 3.3.1), one CRT TV, one air conditioner, one washing machine and one refrigerator produced in China (simplified calculation, based simplified LCA data from ecoinvent).

In the End-of-Life, the air conditioner reports a clearly higher environmental benefit compared to all other devices. This is mainly due to the high amount of copper used in such devices – a material that can easily be recycled, but has a high environmental load when produced from primary resources (i.e. resulting thus in a high environmental benefit in case of recycling).

44

4.3

Detailed environmental impact of the manufacturing phase

The simplified LCA, based on the information given in Table 7 and expressed with the LCIA method “Eco-Indicator 99”, results for the various devices in the load shown in Figure 32 (on a per unit base – and relative to the result of the desktop PC, set as 100%). 160%

Eco-Indicator'99 (in % of Desktop PC)

140% 120%

Plastics

Aluminum

Copper

Steel

Glass

Other

100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% PC

Figure 32

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

Environmental loads of the manufacturing phase per unit of a desktop PC, a CRT TV, an air conditioner, a washing machine and a refrigerator (simplified calculation, based standard LCA data from ecoinvent).

PC

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

0

500

1'000

1'500

Plastics

Aluminum

Copper

Steel

Glass

Other

2'000

2'500

3'000

tousand tons

Figure 33

Annual material consumption for the production of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and personal computers (based on data 2005)

On the basis of the production data 2005 (see Table 14 - Table 24 in the annex) and the material composition, the annual consumption of plastics, aluminium, copper, steel and glass was estimated. The results are given in Figure 33. Due to their high production volumes, the

45

air conditioners are of highest importance of the here distinguished types of devices. Based on this overall material consumption data, the impact due to this annual production can be calculated. Its result is shown in Figure 34.

Eco-Indicator'99 points per Year

2.10E+09

Plastics

Aluminum

Copper

Steel

Glass

Other

1.40E+09

7.00E+08

0.00E+00 PC

Figure 34

4.4

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

Environmental loads of the annual Chinese production of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and personal computers (simplified calculation, based standard LCA data from ecoinvent).

Detailed environmental impact of the use phase

The environmental impacts due to the annual electricity consumption are estimated using the annual energy consumption reported in Table 8. Two different views are possible – one in relation to the annual consumption per device – here shown in Figure 35 - and the other one in relation to the total annual consumption, based on the total production of such type of devices – here shown in Figure 36. As can be seen there, again the air conditioner is the clearly dominating device. On a “per device” basis, the refrigerator due to the fact that this device consumes during 24h electricity is also clearly more important than the other three here examined devices. Over the complete 2005, the difference between refrigerator and computer / TV is smaller due to the fact that less fridges are produced in China than television devices.

46

50

Eco-Indicator'99 points/unit

40

30

20

10

0 PC

Figure 35

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

Annual environmental impacts of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and desktop personal computers due to electricity consumption in use phase – results per unit of these devices (produced in China – used globally).

2.8E+09


2.1E+09

1.4E+09

7.0E+08

0.0E+00 PC

Figure 36

4.5

CRT TV

Air conditioner

Washing machine

Refrigerator

Annual environmental impacts of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and desktop personal computers produced in China due to electricity consumption in use phase (on a global level) – results for the total amount of devices produced in China in 2005.

Release of hazardous substances in the end-of-life phase

Some electronic and electric equipment or its components contain substances that are considered hazardous to the environment and human health. Although these substances are usually only contained in small amounts, they have great potential for causing serious environmental damage. Hence special attention in recycling, recovery and disposal

47

processes is essential in order to prevent from emissions of hazardous substances to the environment. Environmental impacts of emissions of hazardous substances in informal end-of-life processes are not assessed using Eco-Indicator 99 impact assessment method due to lack of data. The impacts are qualitatively discussed and references are given. Depending on the component to be recycled and the technology applied, significant differences in emissions of hazardous substances to the environment and working place exist. Few data exist on emissions of recycling processes and concentration levels of heavy metals and persistent organic compounds in different environmental media, workers and local population. Below some examples of components / fractions from e-products containing hazardous substances are listed:

Batteries and accumulators, notably: Nickel-Cadmium accumulators, batteries and accumulators containing Mercury, Lithium accumulators

Condensers and ballasts (pre-switches), partly containing Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Mercury switches / mercury relays / mercury vapour lamps

Parts containing Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) (refrigeration cycle in refrigerators / insulation materials)

Selenium drums in photocopying machines

Components that release asbestos fibres

Shredder fraction containing PCB, Cd, others

The European RoHS Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and the Chinese Measures for the Administration of Prevention and Treatment of Pollution by Electronic Information Products prohibit the use of Mercury, Cadmium, Lead, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in new e-products. Nevertheless, within the forthcoming decade these hazardous substances will be present in e-waste and a complete phasing out of these substances will last even longer. Serious adverse impacts on the environment in China due to inappropriate e-waste recycling and recovery processes are reported 2002 by the NGO Basel Action Network (BAN) (Puckett, Byster et al. 2002). The main industrial clusters or rather the collection of a large number of small informal workshops related to the recycling of e-waste are located in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces. Increased concentration levels of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in soil, river and groundwater samples due to e-waste recycling activities were detected by various scientists in the area of Guiyu in Guangdong province (Wang, Cai et al. 2005), (Leung, Wei Cai et al. 2006), (Yu, Gao et al. 2006), (Deng, Louie et al. 2006), (Leung, Luksemburg et al. 2007), (Wong, Duzgoren-Aydin et al. 2007), (Wong, Wu et al. 2007a), (Luo, Wong et al. 2007),(Luo, Cai et al. 2007), (Qu, Bi et al. 2007).

48

According Xia et al. (Xia, Lin et al. 2007) there is evidence that the low skilled e-waste recycling activities may contribute to the identified elevated blood lead levels of children living in Guiyu. Two studies were carried out in Luqiao and Pingqiao in Zhejiang province and increased concentrations were determined in human milk, cord blood, rice, eggs and fish samples (Zhao, Xu et al. 2007), (Zhao, Xu et al. 2007). In order to avoid uncontrolled release of hazardous substances immediate minimal treatment standards have to be accomplished and depending on the dynamics of the e-waste composition continuously adapted. In the end-of-life phase improper recycling and disposal processes can cause significant negative environmental impacts and special management and attention to critical treatment steps is essential. Due to the occurrence of hazardous substances there is a potential danger to workers in the manufacturing, recycling and disposal of e-products (Steiner 2004), (Leung, Wei Cai et al. 2006), (Scharnhorst, Hilty et al. 2006). Special attention to occupational health and safety is required in all phases of the product’s life cycle.

4.6 4.6.1

Domestic e-waste generation Methodology

In this study eleven different of e-products were selected, including information and communication technology equipments (ICT), large household appliances (LHAs) and consumer electronics (CE) in order to estimate the e-waste generation. Domestic e-waste generation is estimated and forecasted by annual consumption data (see trade data Table 14 - Table 24 in the annex), combined with lifespan whereas annually consumption includes the storage.

Voln = Coni = Geni - Expi + Impi; - Voln: Waste volume of e-product in the “n” year; - Coni: Consumption of e-product in the “i” year; - Geni: Generation of e-product in the “i” year; - Expi: Export of e-product in the “i” year; - Impi: Import of e-product in the “i” year. - Llife = n-i;

4.6.2

Lifespan of selected e-products

The average effective lifespan of e-products is estimated on the basis of relevant literature sources and investigation on the current status of e-product use and obsolescence rates,

49

which is listed in Table 9. In this study, only the lifespan of the first use stage is considered. Reuse and refurnishing is not included in the calculations, e.g. reuse of entire products and components directly or refurnished after recycling.

Table 9

Estimated effective lifespan for selected e-products in China

4.6.3

e-product

Average Lifespan(year)

Desktop PC

6

Notebook PC

5

Mobile phone

3

CRT Monitor

6

LCD Monitor

6

CRT TV

10

LCD TV

5

PDP TV

5

Washing machine

12

Refrigerator

13

Air conditioner

11

E-waste estimation and forecast

According to the methodology mentioned in chapter 4.6.1, combined with the lifespan, the waste volume for selected e-products was calculated, and listed in the following tables.

Table 10

Estimated e-waste generation in China in million units (*interpolation using an exponential or linear regression functions) for 2000 - 2015 ICT Mobile phone

TV

Year

Desktop PC

Notebook PC

CRT Monitor

LCD Monitor

2000

0.3

0.1

3.7

0.0

0.0

2001

0.9

0.1

8.8

0.0

2002

1.3

0.2

22.4

2003

1.9

0.2

2004

2.7

0.4

2005

3.8

2006

LHA Refrigerator

Air conditioner

LCD TV

PDP TV

Washing machine

6.7

0.0

0.0

5*

5*

0.4

0.0

8.7

0.0

0.0

8.0

6*

0.2

0.0

0.0

10.2

0.0

0.0

6.3

6.8

0.6

29.7

1.7

0.0

11.3

0.0

0.0

6.5

4.3

1.6

46.0

2.7

0.0

14.9

0.0

0.0

6.7

4.5

3.4

0.7

62.5

5.4

0.0

15.7

0.0

0.0

8.7

4.4

3.9

5.1

0.7

73.8

6.8

0.0

20.4

0.0

0.2

10.5

5.8

6.8

2007

7.5

1.0

78.7

7.0

2.5

23.2

0.0

0.2

9.0

7.3

7.7

2008

14.5

1.5

88.1

8.0

4.1

30.9

0.1

0.3

10.2

8.7

9.2

CRT TV Million units

50

2009

30.8

2.0

119.3

9.0

5.1

37.2

0.2

0.5

11.9

9.2

10.9

2010

33.7

2.8

140*

10.0

7.0

29.1

1.3

0.8

11.6

9.7

12.4

2011

37.5

4.2

160*

12.0

9.3

30.4

3.8

1.0

12.8

9.7

16.5

2012

39.3

6*

180*

10.1

17.0

34.1

5*

2*

13.5

10.9

9.8

2013

41*

9*

200*

10*

20*

40.1

6*

3*

12.4

10.6

14.1

2014

43*

13*

220*

9*

30*

51.7

8*

4*

12.5

8.3

21.4

2015

45*

19*

240*

8*

40*

53.5

9*

6*

13.0

10.7

29.9

Table 11

Estimated e-waste generation in China in thousand tons for 2000 - 2015 ICT

Year

Desktop PC

Notebook PC

Mobile phone

TV CRT Monitor

LCD Monitor

CRT TV

LHA

LCD TV

PDP TV

Washing machine

Refrigerator

Air conditioner

10^3 tons 2000

4.1

0.2

0.6

0.0

0.0

201.7

0.0

0.0

137.5

285.0

17.1

2001

11.6

0.4

1.3

0.0

0.0

260.1

0.0

0.0

220.6

342.0

11.0

2002

17.6

0.7

3.4

0.0

0.0

305.8

0.0

0.0

174.3

386.7

28.7

2003

25.6

0.7

4.5

26.4

0.0

338.6

0.0

0.0

178.4

245.8

72.0

2004

36.4

1.4

6.9

43.1

0.0

444.1

0.0

0.0

183.4

254.7

157.8

2005

50.4

2.5

9.4

85.7

0.0

470.4

0.0

0.0

240.0

253.4

179.2

2006

68.6

2.6

11.1

108.1

0.0

610.3

0.2

4.9

288.2

329.5

311.2

2007

100.6

3.6

11.8

111.3

14.3

695.1

0.3

6.5

248.5

414.6

354.7

2008

193.9

5.1

13.2

127.2

23.3

923.4

1.8

9.8

281.3

495.6

424.9

2009

413.1

7.1

17.9

143.1

29.2

1'111.7

6.5

16.3

326.5

526.8

501.0

2010

451.8

9.8

21.0

159.0

39.9

871.0

37.8

26.0

318.7

551.1

568.1

2011

502.1

14.7

24.0

190.8

53.0

908.1

114.0

34.0

352.1

554.9

760.0

2012

527.0

21.0

27.0

160.4

96.9

1'019.9

150.0

65.0

370.1

619.6

452.0

2013

549.4

31.5

30.0

159.0

114.0

1'199.9

180.0

97.5

341.0

605.1

647.7

2014

576.2

45.5

33.0

143.1

171.0

1'545.8

240.0

130.0

343.8

472.3

985.8

2015

603.0

66.5

36.0

127.2

228.0

1'598.5

270.0

195.0

357.5

609.9

1'374.5

The following figure shows the total waste volumes of the selected e-products in thousand tons.

51

6'000

Air conditioner Refrigerator Washing machine

5'000

PDP TV LCD TV CRT TV

4'000

LCD Monitor 10^3 tons

CRT Monitor Mobile phone

3'000

Notebook PC Desktop PC 2'000

1'000

0 2000

Figure 37

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Estimated e-waste generation in China in thousand tons (2000 – 2015)

In 2006, it was estimated that the total waste volume of the selected e-products, including desktop PC, notebook PC, mobile phone, washing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner, TV (CRT, LCD and PDP), visual display units (CRT and LCD) reached 130 million units or about 1.7 million tons. This amounts to approximately 1.3 kg e-waste generated per capita in China (population estimate 2006: 1’307’000’000). According data from the EU WEEE Forum the system operators in different European countries collected 2005 on average 3.4 kg e-waste per capita (Forum 2007). In Switzerland 13.3 kg e-waste per capita was collected in 2006 (SENS 2007). The penetration rate for personal computers in Switzerland is 480.7 PCs per 1’000 inhabitants and in China 15.8 respectively (Nationmaster 2007). The low penetration rate of personal computers in China and consequently the low level ewaste generation per capita indicates that in China the market for e-products is far away from saturation and still growing. Hence it is expected that the waste volumes will in the near future dramatically further increase. According to the estimates the total domestic e-waste generation will double from 2006 to 2009 and will exceed clearly 3 million tons. This trend will continue beyond 2015. Table 12 shows the e-waste volumes of selected countries. The volume of domestically generated e-waste in China accounts for a high proportion of the overall amount.

52

Table 12

E-waste generation in selected countries (Empa 2007) and (Terazono, Murakami et al. 2006)

Country

Total e-waste

Categories of Appliances counted in e -waste

tons/y Office

Switzerland

98,700

&

Telecommunications

Entertainment

Electronics,

Large

Equipment, and

Small

Year

Consumer Domestic

2006

Appliances, Refrigerators, Fractions Office Germany

1,100,00

&

Telecommunications

Entertainment

Electronics,

Large

Equipment, and

Small

Consumer Domestic

2005

Appliances, Refrigerators, Fractions Office UK

915,000

&

Telecommunications

Entertainment

Electronics,

Large

Equipment, and

Small

Consumer Domestic

1998

Appliances, Refrigerators, Fractions 2,158,490 USA 1,824,800 (annual)

Video

Products,

Audio

Products,

Computers

and

Telecommunications Equipment

2000

Desktop Computers, Laptop Computers, CRT Monitors, LCD

2003

Monitors, Televisions, CRT Televisions, Projection TVs, Cell

to

Phones, Printers, Keyboards, Computer Mice

2005

Computers, Home electrical appliances (TVs, Washing

Taiwan CN

14,036

Thailand

60,000

Denmark

118,000

Electronic and Electrical Appliances including Refrigerators

1997

74,800

Large white goods (excl. fridges and freezers); other

2002

Machines, Air conditioners, Refrigerators) Refrigerator,

Air

Conditioners,

Televisions,

Washing

Machines, Computers

2003

2003

household appliances; Hand tools, gardening equipment IT, Sweden

office equipment, telecom; TV, video, audio; Cameras, clocks, 78,600

toys; Light

sources, fittings; Medical and laboratory

2003

equipment. Canada

China mainland* Korea

67,000 1,350,000

Computer Equipment (computers, printers etc) & Consumer Electronics (TVs) Large home appliances (Refrigerator, Air Conditioners,

2005 2005

Washing Machines); Consumer electrics (TV, PDP TV); ICT 1,790,000 6,800

(computers, display, mobile phone etc) TV, Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Air Conditioner

2006 2005

53

4.7 4.7.1

E-waste imports Relevant regulation on e-waste import in China

China issued in 2001 a ban for importing e-waste and promulgated additional policies and regulations, such as the “Supplementary Regulations of Interim Provisions on the Management of Environmental Protection in the Waste Import”. The policy states that the wastes controlled by the Basel Convention include e-waste and special measures on the control of transboundary movements and disposal are required. On July 3rd, 2002, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the Administration of Customs and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) jointly issued the Notice No. 25/2002 on Waste Lists. The list covers 21 types of wastes including e-waste like LHAs, ICTs and CE which are banned to import and to be used as secondary raw materials. In order to control e-waste imports SEPA selected in 2002 more than 500 companies and certified them as importers and processors of the 7th waste category. This category was categorized comprises e-waste and other metal waste. Companies without a certification are not qualified to recycle the 7th waste category.

4.7.2

Current situation of e-waste import in China

Actually, relevant activities to ban the import are largely ineffective because local government agencies lack adequate resources to enforce the regulations. Furthermore, the command and control approach is not likely to fundamentally alter the basic forces that generate illegal imports. The number of small enterprises engaged in the recycling of imported e-waste is actually considerably larger than the number approved by the government. And it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the quantity of imports of e-waste, largely because such imports are frequently disguised as shipments of metal scrap or electronic products (Liu, Tanaka et al. 2006). The brand names on the casings indicate that China import e-waste mainly from the North Americas, to a lesser degree from Japan, South Korea and Europe (Puckett, Byster et al. 2002). E-waste is often imported via Hong Kong and Taiwan, using Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanhai as transit points, and then distributed to Guangdong and Zhejiang province where informal e-waste recycling clusters are located.

4.7.3

Estimation on the volume of illegally imported e-waste

The Beijing Zhongse Institute of Secondary Metals (Zhongse 2002) estimated that the amount of e-waste imported in the Yangtze River delta accounts for over 700’000 tons in 2001. Pearl River Delta was another destination for e-waste import. Applying the estimation methods of e-waste import by Yangtze River delta to the Pearl River Delta, it was estimated that another 700’000 tons was imported illegally from Pearl River delta. In addition, it was

54

reported that some other harbor regions (Bohai Sea Bay area, including Tianjin harbors and Shandong) also illegally imported e-waste, accounting for roughly 10% of the total e-waste imports (BCRC 2005). To sum up the imported e-waste volume in this area was about 150’000 tons. Consequently, one can assume that the amount of imported e-waste in 2001 was about 1.5 million tons.

55

5

Conclusions and Policy Implications

5.1

Conclusions

From the analysis of the supply chain structure of the EEE industry in China and the assessment of environmental impacts along the products entire life cycle, the following conclusions can be derived.

5.1.1

General conclusions

China plays a key role in the EEE industry and produces a significant share of the worldwide output. In 2006, 72 million notebook PCs and 229 million desktop PCs were sold worldwide (IDC 2007). China produces 77% of the global output of notebook PCs and 21% of desktop PCs respectively (NBSC 2006). In 2005, global shipments of CRT televisions were 158 million (Display 2007) whereas China has produced 79 million units or 50% (NBSC 2005). Additionally, a large amount of Chinas exports from the EEE industry are components and semi-finished products for final assembling in regional markets, in particular for desktop PCs. Around 17% of the desktop PCs, 94% of the notebook PCs, 73% of the mobile phones, 36% of the CRT TVs, 80% of the LCD TV and 38% of the PDP TV produced in China are exported. The export volume of washing machines accounts for 41%, of refrigerators for 54% and of air-conditioners for 58% of total production in China. China imports very small volumes of final assembled EEE.

Concerning the production place it can be concluded that the higher the technology level of a component, the less it is produced in general in China. Integrated (logic) circuits (ICs) or LCD modules, two components with a very high technology level for the production (clean room, etc.) are hardly produced currently in China, while simpler materials or assemblies like soldering, fasteners, connectors, cables, fan, resistors, semiconductor devices, CD- or DVD-ROM, floppy drives, as well as printed wiring boards are produced mainly in China. Thus, for key components like logic ICs, the Chinese electronic industry depends much on imports.

The LCA study of the desktop PC system shows that the phases manufacturing and use generate very high environmental impacts, while the End-of-Life phase can result in a significant environmental benefit. Other LCA studies in the electronics sector – like e.g. Tekawa et al. (Tekawa, Miyamoto et al. 1997), Segundo et al. (Seungdo, Taeyeon et al. 2001), Hikwama (Hikwama 2005) or Choi et al. (Choi, Shin et al. 2006) – ended up with rather similar results.

56

5.1.2

Manufacturing Phase

In the manufacturing of a desktop PC system the impact is clearly due to the production of the desktop PC itself as well as either type of screen used – while keyboard and mouse have very small impacts.

Within the desktop PC the most significant environmental impacts are generated in the production of integrated circuits (IC). Three aspects are responsible for this impact – the energy consumption of the process itself, the wafer production and the energy intensive refining of precious metals (here especially Gold). Apart ICs, all further components containing precious metals contribute also in a rather important way to the total impact due to the PC production. Only minor impacts result from the (final) assembling of all components, semi-finished and final products to the actual desktop PC.

Concerning the production of the two here examined types of screen (CRT and LCD), it can be seen that in the CRT case, the materials (glass, but also the electronics part) are rather dominant – while for the LCD screen the production process itself (especially in case of the LCD module) is of much higher importance; mainly due to the clean room technology requested in order to produce an LCD module.

On a broader view – not only focussing on the desktop PC system – it is estimated that in China in 2005 for refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, CRT TVs and PCs produced in China more than 3.3 millions tons of steel, 1.9 millions tons of plastics, 1.7 millions tons of glass, 0.7 million tons of copper and 0.3 million tons of aluminium was used. Hence, more than 12% of the total Chinese copper consumption of 5.6 million tons (Nationmaster 2007) comes from the production of e-products.

The related environmental load shows a clear dominance of the air conditioners, followed by the desktop PC systems, CRT TVs and refrigerators – while washing machines have a comparably low impact.

5.1.3

Distribution & Use Phases

The environmental impacts in the global distribution are compared to the other phases along the PCs life cycle very small, almost negligible. Due to long transport distances highest impacts result from distribution to Europe and America.

Due to the electricity consumption in the use phase, significant environmental impacts are generated during the effective lifespan of each of the here examined devices. Highest impacts in the use phase result from using air conditioners and refrigerators.

The annual electricity consumption in the use phase of all air-conditioners produced in 2005 is 81’893 GWh. Refrigerators consume 22’881, CRT TV 18’941, PC 8’911 and washing machines 2’790 GWh annually. Thus again, the air-conditioners contribute substantially to the overall environmental impacts in the use phase of e-products.

57

5.1.4

End-of-Life Phase

In the end-of-life phase the production of secondary raw materials and thereby the avoidance of mineral extraction through substitution (circular flow economy) can compensate negative environmental impacts from recycling and recovery activities or even result in environmental benefits. According Hischier et al. (Hischier, Wäger et al. 2005) e-waste recycling proves to be clearly advantageous from an environmental perspective compared to primary production of the raw materials. A fact that is also confirmed here in this study.

A major part of the environmental benefit due to the EoL phase is caused by the recovery of metals – copper and precious metals especially. In a state-of-the-art gold recovery process from printed wiring boards (PWBs), more than 90% of the potential quantity can be recovered. Rochat et al. (Rochat, Hagelüken et al. 2007) investigated gold recovery processes of PWBs in informal workshops in India and estimated a recovery rate of only about 40%. Hence, informal workshops tend to have inefficient recovery processes for precious metals and can potentially contribute less to the reduction of the overall environmental burden of the EEE chain.

In the EoL phase severe adverse impacts to the environment can occur due to inappropriate recycling, recovery and/or disposal processes. Scientists investigated informal ewaste recycling sites in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces and concluded that the recycling activities result in increased concentration levels of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in environmental media, agricultural food products, human milk and cord blood.

The low penetration rate of PCs in China and consequently the low level e-waste generation per capita indicates that in China the market for e-products is far away from saturation and still growing. Hence it is expected that the waste volumes will in the near future dramatically further increase. According to the estimates the total domestic ewaste generation will double from 2006 to 2009 and will exceed clearly 3 million tons.

Obviously there are no statistical data available for illegal imports of e-waste, but it can be assumed that today illegal e-waste imports still occur in China. In this study it is estimated that about 1.5 million tons of e-waste has been imported illegally in 2001.

5.2

Policy Implications

The implications from the above mentioned conclusions on policies for sustainable development are multiple. The recovery of material resources in a circular flow economy and an effective and efficient management of hazardous substances are essential. Sustainable processes in terms of economic and ecological performance and social implications are the cornerstone for a continuous sustainability improvement. Finally, the optimal framework for a well functioning system is fundamental and is given by the legal framework and a secure financing system for the external cost.

58

Below a set of possible measures are listed and grouped according these main fields of interventions, namely to establish a circular flow economy, to control hazardous substances, to implement sustainable processes and to ensure an optimal legal framework and secure financing.

5.2.1

Circular flow economy

The efficiency of the circular flow economy should be continuously improved and material recycling and re-application of secondary raw materials in industrial processes should be supported. Precondition for a circular flow economy are well-functioning collection systems.

Establish an efficient collection system (collective take-back system) and maintain employment of low skilled and low income worker. The informal collection has proved to be very efficient. The risk of exposition to hazardous substance during the collection activity is very low and options to integrate informal collection structures into a formal system should be proved.

Recycle and recover materials but ensure that hazardous substances are not being dispersed into other new products2.

Identify and remove barriers in the re-application of secondary raw materials in industrial processes.

5.2.2

Control of hazardous substances

Hazardous substances should be avoided in e-products where technically possible. For most of the substances substitutes are available. A monitoring system for hazardous substances in e-waste intended to establish an optimal occupational health and safety and environmental pollution control is highly important.

2

Ban the use of hazardous substances in the production of EEE as far as possible. The Chinese Administration of Prevention and Treatment of Pollution by Electronic Information Products prohibit the use of Mercury, Cadmium, Lead, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in new e-products. This measure should be consequently put into practice.

Weidenhamer and Clement (Weidenhamer, J. D. and M. L. Clement (2007a). "Widespread lead contamination of imported low-cost jewelry in the US." Chemosphere 67(5): 961-965.) reported about leadcontaminated low-cost jewelry on US market imported from China and advance the hypothesis that leaded ewaste is a possible source material for the contamination (see also Weidenhamer, J. D. and M. L. Clement (2007b). "Leaded electronic waste is a possible source material for lead-contaminated jewelry." Chemosphere Article in Press.).

59

Identify and separate components and fractions of e-waste containing hazardous substances (de-toxify e-waste). The transports, separation and disposal of hazardous substances should be monitored and controlled carefully. A safe disposal of hazardous substances requires adequate disposal facilities like high temperature incineration plants.

Initiate technical control bodies in order to monitor and control quantities and flows of hazardous components / fractions and the disposal processes applied. The technical control bodies consist of technical experts in the field of recycling, recovery and disposal of hazardous substances from e-waste. Further, monitor and control the illegal e-waste imports.

5.2.3

Sustainable processes

The processes along the life cycle of EEE should be from a sustainability perspective efficient and effective.

3

Improve the eco-efficiency of the production of silicon wafers, ICs and LCD modules by supporting the development of environmentally sound production technologies.

Reduce the electricity consumption of EEE in the use phase by measures like implementing standards for the electricity consumption of new products, establishing a labelling system3, consumer awareness raising campaigns or mandatory stand-by switches in government offices, universities, schools, etc. for e-products.

Support research and implementation of adequate recycling technologies and techniques. Recovery of precious metals in informal recycling processes is proved to be inefficient and technology and skills need to be improved substantially.

Support initiatives / activities for reuse of devices or recovery of functions (secondhand markets, re-integration of components in manufacturing, refurbishing, etc.). Thereby it should be considered that prolonging products lifetime reduces e-waste quantities but can be contrary the efforts of for energy efficiency of products.

A survey carried out by Huang et al. (Huang, P., X. Zhang, et al. (2006). "Survey and analysis of public environmental awareness and performance in Ningbo, China: a case study on household electrical and electronic equipment." Journal of Cleaner Production Article in Press.) in Ningbo showed that the residents are not satisfied with the local environment quality and they would like very much to share environmental responsibility. About 64% of the respondents are aware of Chinese environmental labelling. Nearly 70% and 80% of the respondents are willing to pay for environmental improvement and to purchase environmentally friendly products, respectively.

60

5.2.4

Legal framework and secure financing

The optimal framework for a well functioning system is given by the legal framework and a secure financing system for external cost.

Facilitate and support the set-up of a legal framework and define the role of all stakeholders in particular the role of the manufacturers and importers. There is lack of an integrated regulatory regime to govern the collection, treatment, and recycling and re-use of e-waste.

Moderate and facilitate the establishment of a secure financing scheme for managing and maintain a sound and safe end-of-life system. Several authors state that the formal e-waste recycling industry in China cannot compete against the informal recycling sector (Hicks, Dietmar et al. 2005), (He, Li et al. 2006), (Terazono, Murakami et al. 2006). Financing mechanisms for the creation of incentives for diverting e-waste into formal recycling process and for setting up and maintain a technical controlling system should be worked out.

61

6

Annex

6.1 6.1.1

Annex 1 – Trade Data Trading partners of Hi-Tech products

The following table shows the most important trading partners of China for Hi-tech. products in 2005. The top five countries / regions from which China is importing Hi-tech. products are ASEAN of 23.93%, Japan of 18.12%, Taiwan CN4 of 17.45%, South Korean of 15.43%, and EU of 11.58% respectively. And the top five countries which import Hi-tech. products from China were U.S.A of 24.43%, Hong Kong CN of 18.12%, EU of 23.79%, Japan of 8.47%, and ASEAN of 7.61% respectively.

Table 13 Trade of High-technology products of export to and import from abroad (Custom 2005) (Note: ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Countries/Region

Import

Export USD

U.S.A

16.11

9.61%

52.04

24.80%

Hong Kong CN

4.09

2.44%

51.26

24.42%

EU

19.41

11.58%

49.94

23.79%

Japan

30.38

18.12%

17.77

8.47%

ASEAN

40.13

23.93%

15.97

7.61%

25.87

15.43%

7.06

3.36%

Taiwan CN

29.25

17.45%

5.18

2.47%

Others

2.43

1.44%

10.66

5.08%

National

167.67

100%

209.88

100%

South Korean

4

From the official statistic definition, data of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are classified as import and export regions.

62

Import from abroad Taiwan CN 17%

Others 1%

U.S.A 10%

Hong Kong CN 2% EU 12%

South Korean 15%

Japan 18%

ASEAN 25%

Export to abroad Taiwan CN 2%

South Korean 3%

Others 5%

U.S.A 26%

Japan 8% ASEAN 8% EU 24%

Hong Kong CN 24%

Figure 38 Trade of Hi-tech. products of export to and import from abroad (Custom 2005)

63

6.1.2

Production, import, export and domestic sales data

Import, export and domestic sales data has been gathered from national statistics, the production output was calculated (production output = domestic sales + exports – imports). Data for the most important e-products (desktop PC, notebook PC, mobile phone, CRT monitor, LCD monitor, CRT TV, LCD TV, PDP TV, washing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner) is shown in the following Table 14 - Table 24. Graphs are given in Figure 39 Figure 41. The data 2001 – 2006 has been gathered by the China Electronics Engineering and Design Institute (CEEDI) using data from China Customs (Custom 2006), Computer Business World, Analysis International, SINO Market Research Co. Ltd., China Electronics and Information Industry Annual Bulletin. The data older than 2001 has been compiled by Tsinghua University using data from the China Statistical Yearbook (NBSC 2006).

Table 14

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for desktop PCs produced in China (1989 – 2006)

year

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

million set 1989

0.08

0.01

0.04

0.11

1990

0.08

0.01

0.05

0.12

1991

0.16

0.01

0.09

0.25

1992

0.13

0.01

0.07

0.19

1993

0.15

0.01

0.11

0.25

1994

0.25

0.02

0.08

0.30

1995

0.84

0.06

0.09

0.87

1996

1.39

0.09

0.02

1.32

1997

2.07

0.18

0.02

1.91

1998

2.91

0.25

0.05

2.72

1999

4.05

0.35

0.05

3.76

2000

6.72

1.65

0.05

5.12

2001

8.04

0.56

0.03

7.51

2002

16.45

2.01

0.03

14.47

2003

33.93

3.78

0.68

30.83

2004

37.77

4.92

0.88

33.72

2005

43.68

6.23

0.02

37.47

2006

47.46

8.15

0.02

39.33

64

Table 15

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for notebook PCs produced in China (1995 – 2006)

year

Output

export

import

consumption

million set

Table 16

1995

-

-

0.07

0.07

1996

-

-

0.10

0.10

1997

-

-

0.21

0.21

1998

-

-

0.21

0.21

1999

0.00

0.00

0.41

0.41

2000

0.08

0.00

0.64

0.72

2001

0.09

0.05

0.70

0.74

2002

0.49

0.13

0.67

1.03

2003

14.09

13.30

0.66

1.45

2004

26.50

25.32

0.86

2.03

2005

43.43

41.35

0.73

2.81

2006

55.48

51.99

0.72

4.21

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for mobile phones produced in China (1995 – 2006)

year

Output

export

import

consumption

million set 1995

1.31

0.04

-

1.27

1996

3.63

0.08

-

3.55

1997

3.78

0.10

-

3.68

1998

8.53

0.35

-

8.82

1999

22.68

0.25

-

22.43

2000

52.48

22.75

-

29.73

2001

75.93

45.20

15.29

46.02

2002

108.57

63.29

17.20

62.47

2003

147.06

95.34

22.07

73.79

2004

212.02

146.05

12.72

78.70

2005

303.61

228.30

12.75

88.06

2006

340.41

250.00

28.92

119.33

65

Table 17

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for CRT monitor produced in China (1997 – 2006)

year

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

million set

Table 18

1997 1998

5.98

5.20

0.88

1.66

8.55

7.38

1.55

2.71

1999

15.31

10.39

0.47

5.39

2000

39.20

33.06

0.66

6.80

2001

41.78

37.58

2.80

7.00

2002

40.83

35.48

2.65

8.00

2003

39.80

33.46

2.66

9.00

2004

40.14

34.29

4.15

10.00

2005

27.18

21.02

5.84

12.00

2006

18.05

12.65

4.70

10.09

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for LCD monitor produced in China (2001 – 2006)

year

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

million set

Table 19

2001

18.58

18.90

2.82

2.50

2002

28.84

27.86

3.10

4.08

2003

31.58

29.85

3.39

5.12

2004

50.39

46.28

2.89

7.00

2005

79.37

74.59

4.52

9.30

2006

107.27

94.37

4.10

17.00

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for CRT TV produced in China (1989 – 2006)

year

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

million set 1989

9.40

2.07

0.08

7.41

1990

10.33

3.62

0.04

6.75

1991

12.05

3.40

0.05

8.70

1992

13.33

3.17

0.07

10.23

1993

14.36

3.11

0.08

11.33

66

Table 20

1994

16.89

2.22

0.48

14.85

1995

20.58

5.18

0.33

15.73

1996

25.38

5.37

0.41

20.41

1997

27.11

4.29

0.42

23.25

1998

34.97

4.38

0.30

30.88

1999

42.62

5.69

0.26

37.18

2000

39.36

10.32

0.09

29.13

2001

41.95

11.63

0.05

30.37

2002

50.14

16.12

0.09

34.11

2003

60.11

20.11

0.13

40.13

2004

73.72

22.27

0.26

51.70

2005

78.92

25.64

0.18

53.46

2006

84.16

29.92

0.29

54.53

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for LCD TV produced in China (2001 – 2006)

year

Table 21

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

2001

0.76

million set 1.51

2002

1.21

1.81

0.61

0.01

2003

1.66

2.19

0.58

0.06

2004

3.06

3.09

0.25

0.22

2005

8.49

7.29

0.06

1.26

2006

18.44

14.71

0.07

3.80

0.75

0.01

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for PDP TV produced in China (2001 – 2006)

year

Output

Export

Import

Consumption

million set 2001 2002

0.16 0.21

0.01 0.02

0.00 0.00

0.15 0.20

2003

0.32

0.02

0.00

0.30

2004

0.58

0.10

0.02

0.50

2005

1.04

0.24

0.01

0.80

2006

1.68

0.64

0.00

1.05

67

Table 22

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for washing machines produced in China (1989 – 2006)

year

Table 23

Output

Export Import million set

Consumption

1989

8.25

0.23

0.00

8.02

1990

6.63

0.29

0.00

6.34

1991

6.87

0.38

0.00

6.49

1992

7.08

0.42

0.00

6.67

1993

8.96

0.23

0.00

8.73

1994

10.94

0.46

0.05

10.48

1995

9.48

0.50

0.05

9.04

1996

10.75

0.56

0.04

10.23

1997

12.54

0.71

0.03

11.87

1998

12.07

0.53

0.04

11.59

1999

13.42

0.64

0.02

12.81

2000

14.43

1.01

0.03

13.46

2001

14.37

2.00

0.03

12.40

2002

14.67

2.20

0.03

12.50

2003

16.97

4.00

0.03

13.00

2004

20.26

6.29

0.03

14.00

2005

24.47

9.49

0.03

15.00

2006

28.05

11.42

0.03

16.66

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for refrigerators produced in China (1989 – 2006)

year

Output


Consumption

1989

6.71

0.23

0.29

6.78

1990

4.63

0.39

0.07

4.31

1991

4.70

0.23

0.00

4.47

1992

4.86

0.42

0.00

4.45

1993

5.97

0.19

0.01

5.78

1994

7.68

0.41

0.01

7.27

1995

9.19

0.54

0.05

8.70

1996

9.80

0.58

0.03

9.24

1997

10.44

0.79

0.02

9.67

1998

10.60

0.88

0.02

9.73

1999

12.10

1.24

0.01

10.87

2000

12.79

2.18

0.01

10.62

2001

10.89

4.10

1.50

8.29

68

Table 24

2002

14.22

5.50

1.98

10.70

2003

17.07

7.48

2.01

11.60

2004

23.22

10.39

0.07

12.90

2005

26.12

13.74

0.18

12.56

2006

30.69

16.52

0.10

14.27

Production, import, export and domestic sales data for air conditioners produced in China (1989 – 2006)

year

Output


Consumption

1989

0.37

0.01

0.00

0.37

1990

0.24

0.00

0.00

0.24

1991

0.63

0.01

0.01

0.62

1992

1.58

0.03

0.02

1.56

1993

3.46

0.07

0.03

3.43

1994

3.93

0.08

0.04

3.89

1995

6.83

0.15

0.08

6.76

1996

7.86

0.20

0.05

7.71

1997

9.74

0.51

0.01

9.24

1998

11.57

0.68

0.01

10.89

1999

13.38

1.06

0.04

12.35

2000

18.27

1.78

0.03

16.52

2001

13.00

3.18

0.01

9.83

2002

20.18

6.11

0.01

14.08

2003

30.03

9.38

0.78

21.43

2004

58.63

28.88

0.13

29.88

2005

56.87

30.32

0.18

26.73

2006

58.16

33.63

0.22

24.75

69

Desktop PC

Notebook PC 60

50

45

Output Export Import Consumption

40


50

35 40

million sets

million sets

30

25

20

30

20

15

10 10 5

0 19 89 19 90 19 91 19 92 19 93 19 94 19 95 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06

0 1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Mobile Phone 400


350

300

million sets

250

200

150

100

50

0 1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

CRT Monitor

LCD Monitor 120

45


40

35

80

million sets

30

million sets


100

25

20

60

40

15

10 20 5

0

0 1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Figure 39 Production, import, export and domestic sales data for ICT products produced in China

70

CRT TV

LCD TV 20

90

18


80

70


16

14 60

million sets

million sets

12 50

40

10

8 30 6 20

4

10

2

0

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

PDP TV 2


2

1

million sets

1

1

1

1

0

0

0 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Figure 40 Production, import, export and domestic sales data for TV devices produced in China

71

Washing Machine

Refrigerator

30

25

35


30


25

million sets

10^4 sets

20

15

20

15

10 10

5

5

0

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Air Conditioner 70

60


million sets

50

40

30

20

10

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Figure 41 Production, import, export and domestic sales data for large household appliances produced in China

72

6.1.3

Location and market share of PC producer, exporter and importer in China

The following tables show the top five producers of PC monitors and printed wiring boards (PWB) respectively. Table 25 Top five producers (brand) of PC monitor in China (2005)

Producer

PC CRT monitor

PC LCD monitor

Location

Samsung

29%

29%

Suzhou and Tianjin

Philips

29%

9%

Shanghai

ViewSonic

14%

14%

Suzhou and Shanghai

LG

7%

7%

Nanjing

Other

21%

41%

Table 26 Top five producers (brand) of printed wiring boards (PWB) in China (2005)

Producer and exporter Lianneng Science (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Tianli Printed Wiring Board Co., Ltd.

Location

province

Shenzhen

Guangdong

Guangzhou Guangdong

Guangdong Shengyi Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Guangdong Hushi Electronics Co., Ltd.

Kunshan

Jiangsu

Yaxin Electronics (Dongguan) Co., Ltd.

Dongwan

Guangdong

Table 27

Market share of major PC producer in China (CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. July, 2006; ZOL investigation center. January of 2006)

Year

Producer 2002

2005

Location 2006 Beijing, shanghai

Lenovo

28.30% 33.30% 33.30%

Founder

10.50%

8.20%

TongFang

6.50%

15.60% 11.80%

Wuxi (Jiangsu)

Dell

6.20%

12.10% 13.60%

Xiamen (Zhejiang)

HP

3%

15.20%

7.60%

Hedy

2%

4.30%

7.50%

Changcheng

2.90%

2.40%

2.40%

Others

40.60%

8.90%

16.90%

6.90%

Huizhou (Guangdong) Suzhou (Jiangsu)

73

Table 28

Sales data of PC according provinces in China (2006, Q2) (CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. July, 2006; ZOL investigation center. January of 2006)

Province

Sale (104unit)

Shanghai Guangdong Beijing Zhejiang Jiangsu Fujian Shandong Sichuan Anhui Hubei Guangxi Chongqing Shaanxi Heilongjiang Liaoning Tianjin

37.86 37.17 35.98 25.7 25.25 22.61 18.99 18.88 15.08 14.99 14.65 14.33 12.86 12.57 11.63 11.59

Proportion Province Sale (104unit) Proportion Market share Market share 8.80% Hebei 10.87 2.50% 8.60% Henna 10.55 2.50% 8.40% Yunnan 9.31 2.20% 6.00% Shanxi 8.91 2.10% 5.90% Hunan 8.22 1.90% 5.30% Jiangxi 7.91 1.80% 4.40% Jilin 7.52 1.70% 4.40% Gansu 7.13 1.70% 3.50% Inner Mongolia 6.87 1.60% 3.50% Guizhou 6.25 1.50% 3.40% Xinjiang 5.92 1.40% 3.30% Hainan 5.02 1.20% 3.00% Ningxia 2.25 0.50% 2.90% Qinghai 2.19 0.50% 2.70% Tebit 1.49 0.30% 2.70% National 430.56 100.00%

74

6.2

Annex 2 – List of Tables

TABLE 1

COMPONENTS AND MATERIALS FOR THE HERE EXAMINED CHINESE DESKTOP COMPUTER, BASED ON A PENTIUM IV PROCESSOR (DATA TAKEN FROM (HIKWAMA 2005)).................................................................... 15

TABLE 2

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM PRODUCED IN CHINA .......................................................................................................... 16

TABLE 3

DISTANCE ESTIMATION [KM] FOR THE TRANSPORTS OF SCREENS AND PWB TOWARDS THE DESKTOP PC PRODUCING COMPANIES IN CHINA 19

TABLE 4

DISTANCE ESTIMATION [KM] FOR PWB DISTRIBUTED IN WORLDWIDE (1 OWN ESTIMATIONS IN THIS STUDY; 2 DATA FROM ECOINVENT). ........... 19

TABLE 5

DISTANCE ESTIMATION [KM] FOR THE EXPORT OF CHINESE DESKTOP PC SYSTEMS (1 OWN ESTIMATIONS IN THIS STUDY; 2 DATA FROM ECOINVENT).................................................................................................... 20

TABLE 6

AVERAGE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF PC’S USE STAGE (PER UNIT) (NOTE: 1. INCLUDING KEY BOARD AND MOUSE. CRT AND LCD MONITOR ACCOUNT FOR 50% AND 50% RESPECTIVELY.) OFFICE USE IN CHINA IS 252 DAYS PER YEAR. HOME USE IS ASSUMED 365 DAYS PER YEAR.( * ECOINVENT DATA.) ........................................................................................ 22

TABLE 7

COMPOSITION DATA OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND PERSONAL COMPUTERS (GWMR 2005) 42

TABLE 8

LIFESPAN, SPECIFIC ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION AND TOTAL, ANNUAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION (OF ALL IN 2005 IN CHINA PRODUCED SUCH DEVICES) OF PERSONAL COMPUTER, CRT TV, AIR CONDITIONER, WASHING MACHINE AND REFRIGERATOR (HTTP://WWW.EERE.ENERGY.GOV/CONSUMER/YOUR_HOME/APPLIANCE S) ...................................................................................................................... 43

TABLE 9

ESTIMATED EFFECTIVE LIFESPAN FOR SELECTED E-PRODUCTS IN CHINA............................................................................................................... 50

TABLE 10

ESTIMATED E-WASTE GENERATION IN CHINA IN MILLION UNITS (*INTERPOLATION USING AN EXPONENTIAL OR LINEAR REGRESSION FUNCTIONS) FOR 2000 - 2015 ....................................................................... 50

TABLE 11

ESTIMATED E-WASTE GENERATION IN CHINA IN THOUSAND TONS FOR 2000 - 2015....................................................................................................... 51

75

TABLE 12

E-WASTE GENERATION IN SELECTED COUNTRIES (EMPA 2007) AND (TERAZONO, MURAKAMI ET AL. 2006) ......................................................... 53

TABLE 13 TRADE OF HIGH-TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS OF EXPORT TO AND IMPORT FROM ABROAD (CUSTOM 2005) (NOTE: ASEAN, ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS ....................................................................... 62 TABLE 14

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR DESKTOP PCS PRODUCED IN CHINA (1989 – 2006)................................... 64

TABLE 15

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR NOTEBOOK PCS PRODUCED IN CHINA (1995 – 2006) ............................... 65

TABLE 16

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR MOBILE PHONES PRODUCED IN CHINA (1995 – 2006) .............................. 65

TABLE 17

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR CRT MONITOR PRODUCED IN CHINA (1997 – 2006) ........................................... 66

TABLE 18

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR LCD MONITOR PRODUCED IN CHINA (2001 – 2006) ........................................... 66

TABLE 19

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR CRT TV PRODUCED IN CHINA (1989 – 2006)........................................................ 66

TABLE 20

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR LCD TV PRODUCED IN CHINA (2001 – 2006)........................................................ 67

TABLE 21

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR PDP TV PRODUCED IN CHINA (2001 – 2006)........................................................ 67

TABLE 22

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR WASHING MACHINES PRODUCED IN CHINA (1989 – 2006) ....................... 68

TABLE 23

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR REFRIGERATORS PRODUCED IN CHINA (1989 – 2006) ............................. 68

TABLE 24

PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR AIR CONDITIONERS PRODUCED IN CHINA (1989 – 2006)................................. 69

TABLE 25 TOP FIVE PRODUCERS (BRAND) OF PC MONITOR IN CHINA (2005) ........... 73 TABLE 26 TOP FIVE PRODUCERS (BRAND) OF PRINTED WIRING BOARDS (PWB) IN CHINA (2005) ................................................................................................... 73 TABLE 27

MARKET SHARE OF MAJOR PC PRODUCER IN CHINA (CCID CONSULTING CO., LTD. JULY, 2006; ZOL INVESTIGATION CENTER. JANUARY OF 2006) ......................................................................................... 73

76

TABLE 28

SALES DATA OF PC ACCORDING PROVINCES IN CHINA (2006, Q2) (CCID CONSULTING CO., LTD. JULY, 2006; ZOL INVESTIGATION CENTER. JANUARY OF 2006) ......................................................................................... 74

77

6.3

Annex 3 – List of Figures

FIGURE 1

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTION, USE AND END-OF-LIFE PHASES (UPPER GRAPH) AND ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF DIFFERENT UNITS OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM (LOWER GRAPH) .............................................................................................................. 3

FIGURE 2

ANNUAL MATERIAL CONSUMPTION (UPPER GRAPH) AND ANNUAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION (LOWER GRAPH) OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND PERSONAL COMPUTER PRODUCED IN 2005 IN CHINA, ASSESSED USING ECOINDICATOR 99 POINTS..................................................................................... 4

FIGURE 3

DIFFERENT COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRIC EQUIPMENTS (HISCHIER, WÄGER ET AL. 2005) ........................................... 6

FIGURE 4

THE DIFFERENT STEPS OF A LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) STUDY ACCORDING TO THE ISO TECHNICAL STANDARD 14’040........................... 7

FIGURE 5

GENERAL REPRESENTATION OF THE METHODOLOGY. THE WHITE BOXES ABOVE REFER TO INTERMEDIATE RESULTS; THE OTHER BOXES BELOW REFER TO PROCEDURES (FOR MORE, SEE AT: HTTP://WWW.PRE.NL/ECO-INDICATOR99/ECOINDICATOR_99_INTRODUCTION.HTM)........................................................... 9

FIGURE 6

FUNCTIONAL UNIT „ DESKTOP PC SYSTEM WITH CRT MONITOR“ (PRINTER NOT INCLUDED)............................................................................ 10

FIGURE 7

SIMPLIFIED SYSTEM OF THE EXAMINED COMPLETE LIFE CYCLE OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM ................................................................................... 12

FIGURE 8

MODEL OF THE DESKTOP PC SYSTEM WITH THE THREE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DATA (MORE: SEE TEXT) .......................................................... 14

FIGURE 9

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF DESKTOP PC SYSTEMS PRODUCED IN CHINA .......................................... 17

FIGURE 10 LOCATION OF THE LEADING DESKTOP PC, SCREEN AND COMPONENTS PRODUCERS IN CHINA .................................................................................. 18 FIGURE 11 PERCENTAGES OF PC’S OFFICE- AND HOME-ENVIRONMENT USERS IN CHINA (2006) (TIANJI 2006) ............................................................................ 21 FIGURE 12 GLOBAL AVERAGE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS (IN ECO-INDICATOR 99 POINTS) OF THE COMPLETE LIFE CYCLE (I.E. MANUFACTURING,

78

DISTRIBUTION, USE AND END-OF-LIFE TREATMENT) OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM PRODUCED IN CHINA AND USED GLOBALLY. ............................ 25 FIGURE 13 MANUFACTURING PHASE - THE MOST IMPORTANT EXCHANGES WITH NATURE (RESOURCE EXTRACTION / EMISSIONS TO AIR, WATER, SOIL) CONTRIBUTING TO THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THIS SPECIFIC LIFE STAGE.................................................................................... 25 FIGURE 14 END-OF-LIFE (EOL) PHASE - THE MOST IMPORTANT EXCHANGES WITH NATURE (RESOURCE EXTRACTION / EMISSIONS TO AIR, WATER, SOIL) CONTRIBUTING TO THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THIS SPECIFIC LIFE STAGE (NEGATIVE VALUES INDICATE AN ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT).......................................................................... 26 FIGURE 15 COMPARISON OF THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN THE LIFE CYCLE OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM WITH VARIOUS LCIA METHODS: ECO-INDICATOR 99 (TOP, LEFT), SWISS ECO-POINTS (TOP, RIGHT), CUMULATIVE ENERGY DEMAND (BOTTOM, LEFT) AND GLOBAL WARMING (BOTTOM, RIGHT) ........................................................................ 27 FIGURE 16 THE OVERALL LIFE CYCLE OF A DESKTOP PERSONAL COMPUTER, EVALUATED WITH THE CML’01 METHOD. ................................................... 28 FIGURE 17 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (IN ECO-INDICATOR 99 POINTS) OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF ONE DESKTOP PC SYSTEM PRODUCED IN CHINA TO THE FOUR MAJOR MARKETS (MORE DETAILS SEE CHAPTER 3.2.4.2) AS WELL AS GLOBAL AVERAGE VALUE, BASED ON THE CURRENT EXPORT RATES. ............................................................................................................. 29 FIGURE 18 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (IN ECO-INDICATOR 99 POINTS) OF THE USE PHASE – RESULTS FOR THE USE OF ONE DESKTOP PC SYSTEM PRODUCED IN CHINA IN THE FOUR MAJOR MARKETS (MORE DETAILS SEE CHAPTER 3.2.4.2) AS WELL AS GLOBAL AVERAGE VALUE, BASED ON THE CURRENT EXPORT RATES. FOR COMPARISON REASON, THE TOTAL LOAD DURING THE MANUFACTURING PHASE OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM IS SHOWN ON THE LEFT SIDE (ROW “MANUF.”)......................... 30 FIGURE 19 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM. THE PRODUCTION OF ONE COMPUTER IS COMPARED WITH THE PRODUCTION EFFORTS OF A 17-INCH CRT SCREEN, A 17-INCH LCD SCREEN, A KEYBOARD AND AN OPTICAL MOUSE. ................................... 31 FIGURE 20 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A DESKTOP COMPUTER SYSTEM. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE

79

FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT............................................................................................................ 32 FIGURE 21 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A LOGIC TYPE IC. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 2.5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT. 32 FIGURE 22 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT PIECES WITHIN A DESKTOP PC. THE PRODUCTION EFFORTS (RIGHT SIDE) ARE COMPARED WITH THE COMPOSITION SHOWN IN TABLE 1. .................... 33 FIGURE 23 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A DESKTOP PC. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT. ... 34 FIGURE 24 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A 17-INCH CRT SCREEN. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT............................................................................................................ 35 FIGURE 25 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT PIECES WITHIN A 17-INCH CRT SCREEN. ................................................................................................. 35 FIGURE 26 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT PIECES WITHIN A 17-INCH LCD SCREEN................................................................................................... 36 FIGURE 27 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A LCD MODULE FOR A 17-INCH LCD SCREEN. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT. .......................................................... 37 FIGURE 28 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE MANUFACTURING OF A 17-INCH LCD SCREEN. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT............................................................................................................ 38 FIGURE 29 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND BENEFITS DUE TO THE EOL OF A DESKTOP PC SYSTEM. .................................................................................. 39 FIGURE 30 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS (RED) AND BENEFITS (GREEN ARROWS) RESPECTIVELY OF THE DIFFERENT STEPS WITHIN THE END-OF-LIFE

80

TREATMENT OF A COMPLETE DESKTOP PC SYSTEM. FLOW DIAGRAM OUT OF THE USED LCA SOFTWARE SYSTEM – SHOWING ALL THOSE FLOWS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MORE THAN 5% TO THE OVERALL RESULT............................................................................................................ 39 FIGURE 31 GLOBAL AVERAGE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (ECO-INDICATOR 99 POINTS – IN % OF PRODUCTION OF ONE DESKTOP PC) OF THE COMPLETE LIFE CYCLE OF ONE DESKTOP PC (SEE ALSO CHAPTER 3.3.1), ONE CRT TV, ONE AIR CONDITIONER, ONE WASHING MACHINE AND ONE REFRIGERATOR PRODUCED IN CHINA (SIMPLIFIED CALCULATION, BASED SIMPLIFIED LCA DATA FROM ECOINVENT). ....... 44 FIGURE 32 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE MANUFACTURING PHASE PER UNIT OF A DESKTOP PC, A CRT TV, AN AIR CONDITIONER, A WASHING MACHINE AND A REFRIGERATOR (SIMPLIFIED CALCULATION, BASED STANDARD LCA DATA FROM ECOINVENT)................................................. 45 FIGURE 33 ANNUAL MATERIAL CONSUMPTION FOR THE PRODUCTION OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND PERSONAL COMPUTERS (BASED ON DATA 2005) ............................ 45 FIGURE 34 ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS OF THE ANNUAL CHINESE PRODUCTION OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND PERSONAL COMPUTERS (SIMPLIFIED CALCULATION, BASED STANDARD LCA DATA FROM ECOINVENT)................................................. 46 FIGURE 35 ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND DESKTOP PERSONAL COMPUTERS DUE TO ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN USE PHASE – RESULTS PER UNIT OF THESE DEVICES (PRODUCED IN CHINA – USED GLOBALLY). ..................................................................................................... 47 FIGURE 36 ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF REFRIGERATORS, WASHING MACHINES, AIR CONDITIONERS, CRT TVS AND DESKTOP PERSONAL COMPUTERS PRODUCED IN CHINA DUE TO ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN USE PHASE (ON A GLOBAL LEVEL) – RESULTS FOR THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF DEVICES PRODUCED IN CHINA IN 2005........... 47 FIGURE 37 ESTIMATED E-WASTE GENERATION IN CHINA IN THOUSAND TONS (2000 – 2015).............................................................................................................. 52 FIGURE 38 TRADE OF HI-TECH. PRODUCTS OF EXPORT TO AND IMPORT FROM ABROAD (CUSTOM 2005)............................................................................... 63 FIGURE 39 PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR ICT PRODUCTS PRODUCED IN CHINA ............................................................... 70

81

FIGURE 40 PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR TV DEVICES PRODUCED IN CHINA.................................................................... 71 FIGURE 41 PRODUCTION, IMPORT, EXPORT AND DOMESTIC SALES DATA FOR LARGE HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES PRODUCED IN CHINA ........................ 72

82

7

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