Research on urban e-waste management in China based on smart technologies

Abstract

The improper management of e-waste poses a serious risk to the environment, human health and socio-economic sustainability due to the increasing volume of e-waste globally, its complexity and hazardous components. The management of e-waste is widely recognized as critical around the world, and China has begun to pay attention to e-waste management as well. The development of smart digital technologies provides a new option to realize efficient e-waste management. This study systematically reviews the application of smart digital technologies in e-waste management, which mainly involves the collection and recycling process of e-waste. On the basis, the research topic of advanced digital technologies used in e-waste management literature were unfolded and discussed. To explore the potential application of smart digital technologies in urban e-waste recycling management, this study investigates key digital technologies and equipment for promoting e-waste management in cities, establishing a smart recycling system and an intelligent logistics recycling system for e-waste, using City X in China as an example. In this study, we try to propose an alternative for City X based on intelligent digital technology, which mainly covers the collection process of e-waste, an intelligent logistics recycling system to track and optimize the logistics of e-waste recycling, and an intelligent inventory management that can realize the digital management of e-waste. Our findings could improve the performance of urban e-waste recycling and provide reference for the promotion of smart urban e-waste management system.