Resource recycling of waste electrical and electronic products in Taiwan

In R.O.C. (Taiwan), the waste management policy has been upgraded from controlling in the early days to the current zero-waste. The current policy focuses on the concepts of prevention and resource recycling and reuse. In recent years, R.O.C. (Taiwan) has actively participated in the “Sustainable Material Management and Sustainable Resource Management” (SMM/SRM) related international conventions and activities, and set up the policy goals which meet the essence of sustainable development, in order to effectively manage recycling and reuse work in Taiwan. The goals are to prevent the environment from being damaged and to improve economic development. The implementation of “Waste Disposal Act” and “Resource Recycling and Reuse Act” in Taiwan have proven that the concepts and scopes of these two policies are consistent with international standards. Actual resource recycling goals have been met. This study aimed to explore the schemes related to resource recycling for electronic and electric products (such as electronic equipment: laptops, monitoring equipment, mother boards, hard drives, cases, power equipment, keyboards, printers; household appliances: TVs, refrigerators, heaters, washing machines, and electric fans), green designs, and green procurement. In recent years, the “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive” by the EU has influenced the electrical and electronic industries internationally. In Taiwan, the number of collected waste electrical and electronic equipment has increased significantly. The “4-in-1 Resource Recycling” project has been implemented by the Taiwan EPA for over a decade, and the recovery rate of waste information technology (IT) products has increased from 30.78% in 2009 to 45.82% in 2011. The performance in recovery rate has been outstanding. For example, the performance of collecting waste electrical and electronic equipment has become better and better. In 2011, the 5.16 kg of WEEE per capita per year was collected, which was higher than the 4.1kg per capita per year goal set up by the EU. It shows that there have been some good results from the efforts the Taiwan government has put in regarding resource recycling for electrical and electronic products.