Uncovering material flow analysis of waste cathode ray tubes television in China

Abstract

Cathode ray tube televisions (TVs) contributes significantly to the rapidly increasing waste stream of cathode ray tubes in the e-waste. This study mainly focused on the material flow of waste cathode ray tube TVs in China. Currently, waste cathode ray tubes constitute a major part of the total generation of e-waste in China. The study aimed to emphasise the flow of materials in the generated waste cathode ray tube TVs by using stock-based material flow analysis model. The modelling was conducted to investigate the disposable number of obsolete devices, in-use stock, and end-of-life of cathode ray tube TVs. SubSTance flow ANalysis (STAN) software was used to perform the material flow analysis modelling and graphical model of the waste cathode ray tube TVs. The results show that in a period of 10 years, overall about 3241.37 kt of cathode ray tube TVs were net produced in China, containing 183.6 kt of glass, 1718.2 kt of plastic, 243 kt of steel/iron, 153.5 kt of lead, 76.6 kt of copper, 7.8 kt of aluminium, and 1.6 kt of antimony. The results revealed that almost 125 kt of end-of-life cathode ray tube TVs containing about 68 kt of glass, 40 kt of plastic, 9 kt of steel/iron, 6 kt of lead, 3 kt of copper, 0.3 kt of aluminium, and 0.07 kt of antimony were dumped in the period of 10 years. Therefore, the management of waste cathode ray tube TVs required better infrastructure for recycling and better regulation to achieve better results in the high recovery of valuable resources.

Quantification and characterization of recovered materials in the cycle of the informal household electronic waste dismantling in Buriram province, Thailand: A challenge towards sustainable management and circular economy

“…With respect to e-waste containing both valuable and non-valuable materials, the unwanted parts from the dismantling process in this study were foam, broken glass, rubber and plastic debris. According to the previous studies report, broken glass from CRT-TVs and desktop computers contains 25% lead, this toxic substance can then be released from the e-waste residues (Singh et al, 2019; Tran et al, 2018). In addition, there was evidence that the surface and subsurface soils in e-waste dismantling household areas in Daengyai and Banpao subdistricts were contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, copper and lead and significantly higher than those observed in non-e-waste dismantling areas (Amphalop et al, 2020).…”

“…Screens and monitors were smashed to yield the metal frame, whereas broken glass was disposed of with the other municipal solid wastes of the community. Besides the broken glasses, the CRT contains lead (as lead oxide) at about 25%, and so the environmental impacts of the waste residue from recycling of CRTs should be of concern (Singh et al, 2019;Tran et al, 2018). Principally, MFA is based on the inflows into system equal the outflows plus changes during transformation.…”

A comprehensive review on hazardous aspects and management strategies of electronic waste: Bangladesh perspectives

“…Then it is followed by the regional level, the product level, and the element level assessments (Ismail and Hanafiah, 2019). The products that were considered for MFA studies included personal computers (Yoshida et al, 2009), TV (Singh et al, 2019), mobile phones (Sugiyama et al, 2016), refrigerators (Li et al, 2019), home appliances including washing machine, vacuum cleaner, microwave oven (Lase et al, 2021;Murakami et al, 2006), etc. MFA studies are increasingly focusing on items that include expensive metals like gold, palladium, and silver, such as mobile phones, computers, and laptops (Islam and Huda, 2019;Withanage and Habib, 2021).…”

Potential for Use of Recycled Cathode Ray Tube Glass in Making Concrete Blocks and Paving Flags

“…However, due to the h of CRT glass recycling and low value of the obtained raw material, only a fraction o glass is recycled in China in a formal way, observing all the regulations protecting health and the living environment [3]. According to Singh et al [4], the estimate generation of CRT TVs in China in the period 2010-2020 is around 3240 kt. In Se 2016, around 3080 tons of CRT glass were collected.…”