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Survey and analysis of consumers behaviour of waste mobile phonerecycling in China

Jianfeng Yin a, Yingnan Gao b,**, He Xu a,*

a College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR Chinab Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Beijing 100029, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 11 October 2011

Received in revised form

26 September 2013

Accepted 2 October 2013

Available online xxx

Keywords:

Waste mobile phone

Questionnaire

Recycling

EPR

Management

a b s t r a c t

Theaim of this paper is toinvestigate thebehaviourof consumerstoward wastemobilephone recycling on a

national scale in China.With this goal in mind, a questionnaire surveywas performedon a nationwidescale

toexploreconsumers behaviours,attitudes andwillingnessto pay(WTP) forrecyclingwastemobile phones.

There were 1035 effective questionnaires, and the questionnaire was analysed with principal component

analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results revealed that the actual service life of

mobile phones in China is generally shorter than three years. Due to the current level of economic devel-

opment andthe traditional concept, only47.9%of consumersagreedto payfor waste mobilephonerecycling,

and most consumers WTP was0e5% of the recyclingcosts. The main factors affecting the consumers WTP

were region, educationlevel andmonthly income. Therefore,mobilephone producers andthe government

should mostly share the responsibility of waste mobile phone recycling. With an improvement in public

environmental awareness, it may be possible for consumers to afford recycling fees in the future, through

either a prepaid deposit, or purchasing the product with the fee embedded in the price. In addition, it is

important to support environmental education to promote environmental awareness.

2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

With the rapid economic development and the continuous

improvement of peoples living standards, the electronic communi-

cations industry has experienced a trend of rapid growth in China. As

of 2004, Chinabecame the largest producer andconsumer of mobile

phones in the world (MIIT, 2005). The production of mobile phones

has reached 1.13 billion units, accounting for 70.6% of the global

production. In 2011, there were 986.25 million users, which brought

the popularising rate reach to 73.6% in China (ITU, 2011; MIIT, 2012).

Moreover, the service life of mobile phones in China is generally less

than three years and is even close to one year in a portion of cases,

due to the pursuit of fashion and the desire to acquire new mobilephone functions (Ha et al., 2010; Ongondo and Williams, 2011; Polk

and Drpalov, 2012). There are approximately 70 million waste

mobile phones being generated every year in China (Yu et al., 2010;

Wang et al., 2011). It is estimated that by 2020, the annual amount

of discarded mobile phones will be approximately seven times

greater than the amount in 2007 (UNEP, 2009). Compared to tradi-

tional municipal wastes, obsolete mobile phones containboth highly

toxic substances and valuable materials that can be recovered, such

as copper, silver, gold and palladium. Therefore, recycling of waste

mobile phones is required to garner the double value of both envi-

ronmental protection and resource conservation. In China, however,

there is still a shortage of appropriate management policies and

collection systems on waste mobile phones, and recycling treatment

infrastructures still need to be developed (Li et al., 2012; Polk and

Drpalov, 2012; Song et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2010).

There is a large amountof legislation (e.g., the Basel Convention)concerning e-waste, including waste mobile phone legislation

enacted to control waste electrical and electronic equipment

(WEEE) around the world (www.basel.int). Since the European

Union (EU) has implemented the restriction on hazardous sub-

stances (RoHS-Directive, 2002/95/EC) and waste electrical and

electronic equipment (WEEE-Directive, 2002/96/EC), many coun-

tries have paid considerable attention to WEEE management.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR), one of the most potent

principles incorporated into e-waste management, states that

producers and importers should extend their responsibility to

reclaim e-scrap (Afroz et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2011).

* Corresponding author. 407, Meng Minwei Building, College of Environmental

Science and Engineering, Nankai University, 94 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin

300071, PR China. Tel./fax: 86 22 23508348.

** Corresponding author.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Y. Gao), [email protected]

(H. Xu).

Contents lists available atScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . co m / l o c a t e / j c l e p r o

0959-6526/$e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.10.006

Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2013) 1e9

Please cite this article in press as: Yin, J., et al., Survey and analysis of consumersbehaviour of waste mobile phone recycling in China, Journal ofCleaner Production (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.10.006
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However, beyond the responsibility of producers and importers,

the government and mobile phone customers also play important

roles in e-waste recycling (Hicks et al., 2005; Nnorom et al., 2009).

There have been many scientic studies focussing on successful e-

waste management and collection systems (Dwivedy and Mittal,

2012; Dindarian et al., 2012; Oliveira et al., 2012; Torretta et al.,

2013). Research has also been conducted on the behaviour of cus-

tomers regarding e-waste recycling or willingness to pay for e-

waste recycling in foreign countries (Afroz et al., 2013; Dwivedy

and Mittal, 2013; Darby and Obara, 2005; Saphores et al., 2012),

of which some studies have focused on used and end-of-life mobile

phones (Jang and Kim, 2010; Nnorom et al., 2009; Ongondo and

Williams, 2011; Polk and Drpalov, 2012).

As an important stakeholder of waste mobile phone recycling

and treatment, the socioeconomic characteristics of consumers,

such as gender, age, income and education level, play important

roles in the behaviour or willingness of the general public

(Saphores et al., 2012; Song et al., 2012; Yoo and Kwak, 2009).

Previous studies based on a questionnaire survey in China have

examined residentsbehaviours, attitudes and their willingness to

pay for e-waste recycling in developed regions, such as Beijing

(Wang et al., 2011), Macau (Song et al., 2012) and the medium-sized

city of Taizhou (Streicher-Porte and Geering, 2010). Nevertheless,the characteristics are different from large WEEE to small e-waste,

with mobile phones serving as a typical example. As small WEEE,

mobile phones have a minor share of WEEE by weight, various

material compositions, defective reuse and recycling systems.

However, mobile phones are the vast majority by number and their

environmental and health impacts would not be negligible

(Chancerel and Rotter, 2009; Darby and Obara, 2005; Polk and

Drpalov, 2012; Xu, 2011). Most recently, China has been under-

going rapid urbanisation and faces both developing and developed

country problems, due to the wide geographical area and high

heterogeneity among population groups in China. Therefore, how

to collect waste mobile phones effectively and efciently, especially

on a national scale, is still a primary challenge for the Chinese

government (Qu et al., 2013).

In our study, we rst introduced a review of the e-waste policy

and practice situation in China, and then we analysed the ques-

tionnaire survey on a national scale. Based on our detailed analysis,

we provide several positive suggestions for methods of waste

mobile phone collection in the future. In addition, we encourage

policy makers to develop more effective management policies for

small WEEE disposal in China, as well as in other developing and

developed countries.

2. Management of waste mobile phones in China

2.1. Laws and regulations on waste mobile phone recycling in China

As the largest manufacturer and consumer of electronic appli-

ances, the Chinese government has made efforts to tackle problems

associated with the recycling and disposal of waste electrical and

electronic equipment since 2001. The driving forces behind these

efforts come from both home and abroad. The regulations on

electronic products and e-waste recycling management systems in

other countries/regions (especially in the EU and its member

countries) have placed substantial pressure on the electronic

productsexport industry in China. Meanwhile, the amountof WEEE

is approaching a peak Chinese domestic e-waste stockpile (Liuet al., 2006). There are three main government agencies regu-

lating WEEE management in China (Yang et al., 2008): the Ministry

of Environmental Protection (MEP), the National Development and

Reform Commission (NDRC), and the Ministry of Industry and In-

formation Technology (MIIT). In addition, the Ministry of Com-

merce (MOC), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the Ministry of

Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), and the State

Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) are also involved in

the management of e-waste.

In response to the e-waste problem, China recently enacted a

number of specic laws on WEEE. There are three basic laws on e-

waste in China: the Cleaner Production Promotion Law, the Solid

Waste Pollution Prevention Law (Amendment), and the Circular

Economy Promotion Law. Based on those laws, the agencies

Table 1

Relevant laws and regulations of electronic wastes in China.

Laws and regulations Major contents Relationship of the regulations Implementation time

Technology Policy of Hazardous Waste Pollution

Control

Stipulate the activities technologies and facilities of

collection, transport, storage, recycling and disposal

of hazardous waste, including e-waste

Administrative rule 2001.12.17

Technology Policy of Waste Battery Pollution

Prevention

Regulate the activities of production, collection,

transport, storage, recycling and disposal of battery


Solid Waste Pollution Prevention Law

(Amendment)

Blanket legislation on prevention and reduction of

pollution caused by solid waste

Law 2005.04.01

Technology Policy of Discarded Household

Appliances and Electronic Products Pollution

Control

Establish the principles of 3Rand polluter pays

principle, encourage building multivariate

recycling system of e-waste


Management Measures of Pollution Prevention forElectronic Information Products

Chinese RoHS Administrative rule 2007.03 0.01

Management Measures of Renewable Resources

Recycling

Stipulate rules of renewable resources recycling

system

Administrative rule 2007.05 0.01

Regulations of Electronic Waste Pollution

Prevention

Regulate the activities of production, disassembly,

recycling, disposal and storage of e-waste


Circular Economy Promotion Law Regulate the requirements for the disassembly and

treatment of e-waste, excluding e-wastes collection

Law 2009.01.01

Technology Specications of Pollution Control for

Processing Waste Electrical and Electronic

Equipment

Stipulate the process of collection, transportation,

storage, dismantling, reuse and disposal of e-waste

Technical standard 2010.04.01

ManagementOrdinance of Recycling and Treatment

of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products

Chinese WEEE directive Decree 2011.01.01

Administrative Measures of Fund for Waste

Electrical and Electronic Products

Establish special fund from producer and importer

to nance e-waste recycling and disposal


Cleaner Production Promotion Law (Amendment) Establish some principals about the design and

production of EEE, and disposal of e-wastes

Law 2012.07.01

J. Yin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2013) 1e92

Please cite this article inpress as: Yin, J., et al., Survey and analysis of consumersbehaviour of waste mobile phone recycling in China, Journal ofCleaner Production (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.10.006


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mentioned above have enacted 12 laws and regulations to manage

recycling and treatment of e-wastes including waste mobile phones

(Table 1), such as the Management Measures of Pollution Preven-

tion for Electronic Information Products (Chinese RoHS, Mar. 1,

2007), the Management Ordinance of Recycling and Treatment of

Waste Electrical and Electronic Products (Chinese WEEE directive,

Jan. 1, 2011). These laws, regulations and policies have laid a solid

legal foundation for the healthy development of the electronic

waste recycling industry in China (Chung and Zhang, 2011; Chen

et al., 2009).

However, there are still many difculties regarding waste mo-

bile phone management in China, and a special legal framework on

small WEEE aiming to encourage stakeholders to participate in

waste mobile phones recycling does not exist, particularly

regarding integration of informal peddlers and private workshops

into the formal recycling system. Regarding waste mobile phone

management, China is lagging behind the European Union and

Japan (Qu et al., 2013; Queiruga et al., 2012; Zhou and Xu, 2012 ).

2.2. Practice of waste mobile phone recycling in China

To recycle waste mobile phones, there have been a myriad of

voluntary recycling activities in Chinese communities, campuses

and cities, initiated by manufacturers, mobile telecom carriers or

sellers. The Green Box Environmental Program and the Green

Card Recycling Activityare two examples of waste mobile phones

recycling activities that have occurred in China (Zhou and Xu,

2012).

The Green Box Environmental Programlaunched in 2005 and

was co-sponsored by China Mobile, Motorola and Nokia. Green

Boxes, exclusively used for recycling waste mobile phones and their

accessories free of charge, were placed in 1000 business halls of

China Mobile, 150 mobile phone sales centres, and service centres

of Motorola and Nokia in 40 major cities. Six companies joined the

program in Apr. 2006, including LG, Lenovo, Chinabird, AMOI, NEC

and Panasonic. It was estimated that until September 2007, there

was a total recovery of nearly 2.6 million discarded mobile phone

Table 2

Questionnaire.

Basic information

City: Age: Sex: Monthly income: Education level:

Part One Treatment way

Q1-1 How long is the average service life of your phone? ,1 year ,2 years ,3 years

,4 years ,5 years ,more than 5 years

Q1-2 What is the reason for replacing your mobile phone? ,Outdated style ,Outdated function

,Damage ,Others

Q1-3 How do you treat your waste mobile phone? ,Stored at home

,Thrown away as ordinary garbage

,Recycled by Green Box Program

,Recycled by Old-for-New activity

,Sold to the peddler and second-hand market

Q1-4 Why do you not participate in waste mobile phones recycling? ,Would rather give the phone to families or friends than recycle it at a low price

,Do not know where to send the phone

,Mobile phone can be used as data storage equipment

,Being afraid of disclosure of privacy

Q1-5 What is the reason for the low recycling rate? ,Absence of a sound recycling system

,Weak environmental awareness

,Absence of government regulation

,Absence of laws and regulations

Q1-6 What is your preference patterns of waste mobile phones recycling? ,Old-for-New activity

,Door-to-door collecting service

,Collecting sites in community built by government

,Business hall of mobile telecom carrier

,Service centre and maintenance centre

Part Two Consumersenvironmental awareness

Q2-1 Do you know the Green Box Environmental Protection Programproposed jointly

by China Mobile, Motorola and Nokia in 2005?

,Have no idea ,Knowing very little

,Know ,Knowing quite well ,Very familiar

Q2-2 Do you know that waste mobile phones contain toxic and hazardous substances,

such as lead, mercury, or arsenic?



Q2-3 Do you know that waste mobile phones contain recyclable precious metal substance,

like gold, silver, or palladium?



Q2-4 Do you know EPR stipulated in electric waste management laws? ,Have no idea ,Knowing very little,Know ,Knowing quite well ,Very familiar

Q2-5 Do you know the meaning of Extended Producer Responsibility? ,Have no idea ,Knowing very little


Part Three Willingness to pay

Q3-1 Which department do you think should

take the responsibility of waste mobile phones recycling?

,Government ,Manufacturer

,Seller ,Consumer

,Communication operator ,Common responsibility

Q3-2 Do you agree that consumers are the ultimate

beneciaries of product and service, and should they

afford a part of charge for the recycling of their waste mobile phones?

,Disagree

,Agreement, Payment Pattern: Deposit system

,Agreement, Payment Pattern: paying when purchasing the product with

the payment embedded in the product price

,Agreement, Payment Pattern: paying when the product is asked for disposal

,Others

Q3-3 If consumers have to pay part of the waste mobile

phone recycling costs, what percentage of recycling costs can you accept?

,0e5% ,6e10% ,11e15%

,16e20% ,21e25% ,more than 26%

J. Yin et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2013) 1e9 3



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and accessory units. However, the recycling rate was very low in

comparison to the amount of waste mobile phones (Wang et al.,

2011) due to the voluntary nature of this program. Thus, there is

no guarantee that consumers will participate in the program,

particularly because they can obtain a bonus by selling their

obsolete cell phones (Kunming, 2011).

The Green Card Recycling Activityfor mobile phone batteries

was initiated in 2006 by Suning, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony

Ericsson and Lenovo. This program specically recycled waste

mobile phone batteries. All of the recycled waste phone batteries

were sound treated by professional treatment companies that were

commissioned by Suning, China mobile and individual consumers;

however, the activity was only a short-term voluntary initiative that

lasted one month (SOHU, 2006). Accordingly, the positive effect of

the activity was very limited.

From Jun. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011, the Chinese government had

proposed an Old-for-New Activity, and sales enterprises, such as

Gome and Suning, were involved in the recycling activity. However,

waste mobile phones were not yet included in the related Old-for-

New Catalog(including TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines,

air conditioners and computers). In general, China has not set up a

practical waste mobile phone recycling system because of the lag in

laws and technology and the very low recycling rate. In addition,most recycling and treatment activities mainly driven by economic

benets were ineffective (Qu et al., 2013; Xing and Lu, 2008).

3. Methodology

3.1. Questionnaire design

Before the nal data gathering, 200 questionnaires were

distributed to consumers through a pilot survey carried out in

Tianjin and Shanxi from Dec. 17, 2010 to Dec. 27, 2010. Based on the

feedback, a revised survey was conducted from Feb. 20, 2011 to

Mar. 15, 2011. The survey contained questions on basic socioeco-

nomic information and three other parts. The socioeconomic in-

formation included questions regarding sex, age, city, educationlevel, and monthly income. The rst of the three additional survey

parts uncovered consumersbehaviours and attitudes on recycling

and treatment of waste mobile phones. The second part aimed to

investigate the consumers environmental awareness of waste

mobile phonesrecycling and treatment. The third part surveyedthe

consumerswillingness to pay for recycling and treatment of waste

mobile phones and factors inuencing their willingness (see

Table 2).

3.2. Sampling methods

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the behaviours,

attitudes and willingness of customers to participate in waste

mobile phones recycling on a national scale. This paper adopted thestratied random sampling method to carry out the survey due to

the tremendous differences and high heterogeneity among popu-

lation groups.

Consumersrecycling behaviour was directly related to the level

of the regions economic development, so this paper used the per

capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the basis for the stratied

random sampling. According to preliminary calculations from 2010

(NBSC, 2011), Chinas GDP had reached 39.7983 trillion Yuan

(Renminbi, RMB), and the per capita GDP was 29,678 RMB. The per

capita GDP of Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin, the three municipal-

ities directly governed by the Central government, had exceeded

60,000 RMB and reached or approached the per capita level of the

moderately developed countries (Sina, 2011). However, the per

capita GDP of some provinces, such as Yunnan, Gansu, Guizhou,

were less than 15,000 RMB. Consequently, the paper divided the

entire country into four sub-regions: A, B, C, and D with the per

capita GDP as the criteria (see Table 3). And no less than 1000

questionnaires were distributed in the 4 regions (Table 4).

There were some difculties in distributing questionnaires due

to the wide geographical area. Therefore, this paper adopted two

distribution channels for the survey, including an on-site method

and an on-line, web-site method.1 Both methods had advantages

and disadvantages. The respondents interviewed using the on-site

method had strong randomness and high representativeness, butthis method needed a higher level of manpower and material re-

sources. Although the on-line, web-site method was more conve-

nient and less resource intensive, the respondents were limited to

netizens, which were poor in representativeness. To make full use

of the advantages of these two methods and to enhance the

representativeness and accuracy of the data, this paper adopted

both survey methods.

3.3. Modelling methods

3.3.1. Stratied random sampling

In sample surveys, we often divide a population into a nite

number of disjointed subpopulations, namely, strata (Hu et al.,

2008). Assuming that a nite population with N elements isdivided intok strata, and the ith stratum possessesNielements,

N Xk

i1

Ni (1)

Ifnielements were taken from stratumiin compliance with the

principle of random sample,

n Xk

i1

ni; (2)

where:i 1,2,.,k.

3.3.2. Likert-type scaleThe Likert-type scale is the most common research method for

surveying opinions and attitudes in the social and business sci-

ences. Respondents are asked to respond to indicate their level of

agreement with a declarative statement. For a ve-point method,

each scale point could be labelled in accordance with its agreement

level as follows: A strongly disagree, B disagree, C neither

disagree nor agree, D agree, and F strongly agree. Based on

what is being measured, the scale labels could be worded differ-

ently (Li, 2013; Ryan and Garland, 1999). In part two of the study,

the attitude, belief, knowledge or experience of the respondent was

Table 3

Region division of the Questionnaire.

Region GDP per capita (RMB) Provinces and cities

A Above 5000 Bejing, Shanghai, Tianjin

B 3000e50 00 Zheji an g, J ian gsu, Guan gd ong, Inner

Mongolia, Shangdong, Liaoning, Fujian

C 2000e3000 Jilin, Hebei, Hubei, Heilongjiang, Henan,

Shanxi, Shaanxi, Chongqing

D 1000e

20 00 Hai na n, Q inghai , Sichu an, Anhu i,Guangxi, Jiangxi, Tibet, Gansu, Guizhou,

Yunnan, Ningxia, Hunan

1 The web-site for the questionnaire: http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?

surveyId

394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0


http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0http://taidu8.com/sr/faces/welcome.jsp?surveyId=394C967144A111E085A52679EA2A13E0


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measured with suitable labels such as Have no idea e very

familiar, with value assignments such that option (A) is 1, option

(B) is 2.and option (E) is 5. The reliability and construct validity

were analysed by the T-Test and Principal Component Analysis of

the SPSS software, respectively.

4. Results

Considering several unavailable questionnaires via in-person

questionnaires, we distributed 1100 questionnaires in the 4 re-gions through an on-site and on-line, web-site method, to ensure

the sample size. The total number of returned questionnaires was

1064, and the number of effective questionnaires was 1035. The

response rate was 96.7%, and the availability rate was 94.1% (see

Table 4). The likely reasons behind the high response rate and

effective questionnaire are as follows: (1) For the on-site method,

we gave gifts to consumers to attract them; and (2) For the on-

line, web-site method, consumers could easily answer the

questionnaires by marking their options with a mouse, and

clicking the submit button when they nished. If consumers did

not nish the questionnaires, the submit button would not be

activated.

There was a bias in the sample toward male (53.9%), 21e30 years

old (41.2%), and junior college and bachelor (55.3%) respondents,either because these people were more interested in completing

the questionnaires, or because these people had more time to

browse the web site of the questionnaire. The demographic

composition of the sample is presented inTable 5.

5. Discussion

5.1. Consumersrecycling behaviour

5.1.1. Average service life of mobile phones in China

With the rapid development of the economy and the electronic

communications industry, most consumers upgrade their phones

due to fashion obsolescence and the desire for new mobile phone

functions, meaning that the potential life span of a mobile phone is

relatively short. According to the data from the questionnaires, the

service life of mobile phones is generally less than 3 years (Fig. 1),

which is shorter than the designed service life.

The major reasons that most consumers replaced their mobile

phones were that their mobile phones were damaged (43.8%), or

the functions and styles were unfashionable (37.1%). The short

service life would lead to a large number of waste mobile phones,

which could be potentially hazardous to the environment. Mean-

while, more and more energy and resources would be utilised to

manufacture new mobile phones. Accordingly, consumers should

extend the service life of their mobile phones to preserve energyand resources.

5.1.2. Consumersmobile phone treatment methods

Through this investigation, it was concluded that 24.8% of the

mobile phones had been given to others or lost (or been stolen).

These phones were reused by consumers, which could extend the

lifespan of mobile phones. Approximately 47.1% of waste mobile

phones were stored at home. The material ow of waste mobile

phones is shown inFig. 2.

Only 28.1% of waste mobile phones were recycled in various

ways, with 6.5% being recycled through the Green Box Program.

The other 2.3% were recycled through the Old-for-New activity,

but there was no uniform subsidised price of the Old-for-New

activity. In addition, 12.4% of waste mobile phones were sold topeddlers or disordered second-hand markets, most of which could

not be disposed of in a reasonable way although some phones

would eventually be recycled. The peddlers and disordered second-

hand markets would dismantle valuable components, sell the

phones in rural areas after reassembly or refurbishment, and then

throw the remains into the surrounding environment (Qu et al.,

2013). Most of the unavailable phones were sold to private work-

shops for dismantlement using out-dated technologies,such as acid

baths or open incineration, which would cause serious secondary

pollution. Additionally, approximately 6.8% of waste phones were

thrown away as ordinary garbage. All of these waste mobile phones

could be potentially hazardous to the environment and the

manufacture of new phones would waste energy and resources.

5.1.3. Factors hindering the behaviour of customers in e-waste

recycling

From the questionnaire, the main reasons listed for why many

waste mobile phones were not recycled were that most consumers

did not know where to send the phones (45.9%), or that they would

rather give their phones to families or friends than recycle it for a

small fee (28.3%). Moreover, some consumers were afraid of privacy

disclosure (17.7%), and a few consumers used waste mobile phones

purely as data storage equipment (8.1%).

5.1.4. Consumersattitude towards the low recycling rate

The survey revealed that the recycling rate of waste mobile

phones is notably low in China. Asked what causes the low rate,

33.4% of consumers indicated that the main reasonwas the absence

Table 4

Distribution of the sample.

District A B C D Total

The number of issued

questionnaires

285 255 280 280 1100

The number of returned

questionnaires

279 241 271 273 1064

The response rate 98.0% 94.5% 96.8% 97.5% 96.7%

The number of effectivequestionnaires

273 227 264 270 1035

The availability rate 95.8% 89.0% 94.3% 96.4% 94.1%

Table 5

Demographic composition of the sample.

N(number) %

Sex

Male 558 53.9%

Female 477 46.1%

Age

10e20 153 14.8%

21e30 426 41.2%

31e40 291 28.1%

41e50 and above 165 15.9%

Monthly income (RMB)0 345 33.3%

1e2000 228 22.0%

2001e3000 198 19.1%

3001e5000 189 18.3%

5001e8000 54 5.2%

8001e15,000 21 2.0%

Education level

Senior High School and Below 193 18.6%

Junior College and Bachelor 572 55.3%

Master and Above 270 26.1%

Region

A 273 26.4%

B 227 22.0%

C 264 25.5%

D 270 26.1%

Total 1035 100%




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of a sound recycling system. Approximately 23.8%, 15.7%, and 15.2%

believed the prime element behind the low rate was weak envi-

ronmental awareness, the absence of government management,

and the absence of laws and regulations, respectively. In addition, a

few consumers expressed that there was an inadequate level of

publicity on the necessity of waste mobile phone recycling.

Hence, we should build a reasonable recycling system to

improve the recycling rate. In addition, we also need to strengthen

publicity through various means to raise environmental protection

awareness among the general public.

5.1.5. Consumerspreference patterns of waste mobile phone

recycling

To improve the recycling rate in China, it is very important to

establish a reasonable and acceptable recycling system. The

investigation of consumers preference patterns of waste mobile

phone recycling indicated that 28.5% of consumers are willing to

send their phones to sellers through the Old-for-New activity,

while a portion of consumers prefer to receive a bonus by selling

their waste phones. Many consumers hoped that the government

would establish collecting sites in communities (25.0%), or that

their phones could be collected in business halls of mobile telecom

carriers (24.7%). The possible reason for this preference by con-

sumers is that the collecting sites or business halls are widely

distributed and close to communities, providing a more convenient

recycling location for consumers. However, the choice of door-to-

door collecting service was low (11.1%), due to fears of privacy

disclosure. In addition, only 10.6% of consumerschoices were the

service centres and maintenance centres because the centres were

too concentrated and far away from communities. Based on the

laws and regulations encouraging WEEE to be recycled through a

variety of ways, the Old-for-New activityshould be standardised

Fig. 1. The average service life of mobile phones.

Fig. 2. Material

ow of waste mobile phones.




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as soon as possible, and the Green Box Programshould be given

more publicity. Meanwhile, the government should build collecting

sites in communities. Consequently, waste mobile phones could be

recycled effectively through these three main methods.

5.2. Consumersrecovery consciousness

The results of an independent sample analysis using SPSS

revealed that the second part of the questionnaire has high reli-

ability and discrimination, and good construct validity. The mean

values of the ve questions in this section were, respectively

calculated (Table 6). The questionnaire results revealed that con-

sumers have the highest level of understanding regarding the toxic,

hazardous substances and precious metal substances contained in

mobile phones. However, a substantial number of consumers were

not aware of the Green Box Environmental Protection Program

and the principle of EPR. In contrast, consumers were more familiar

with the common knowledge of mobile phone components. In

general, consumers were less knowledgeable about e-waste recy-

cling. Accordingly, the government should provide more informa-

tion on a short-term time scale to promote residents general

understanding about e-waste, especially information about the

laws, policies and recycling systems. Furthermore, the fundamentalmethod to improve customers recovery consciousness is to in-

crease the education level of the overall population (Song et al.,

2012).

5.3. ConsumersWTP

Relevant laws proposed the theory of EPR in relation to the issue

of payment methods of WEEE recycling. One important aspect of

EPR is the concept of shared responsibility. The key element of EPR

includes multi-stakeholder collaboration and coordination (Zhang

and Wei, 2008). The Management Ordinance of Recycling and

Treatment of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products, imple-

mented on Jan. 1, 2011, determined that the government should

allocate special funds to support the recycling and treatment ofwaste electrical and electronic products; furthermore, the pro-

ducers and importers have obligations to pay the recycling fees.

However, there were no nancial responsibility requirements on

sellers and consumers. Based on the experiences of developed

countries, a complete and stable waste mobile phone recycling

system requires collaboration of stakeholders, including the gov-

ernment, producers, sellers, mobile telecom carriers and con-

sumers. However, based on the questionnaire, many consumers did

not think they should be held responsible for the take-back fees

because of the tradition that in China they can obtain a bonus by

selling their obsolete cell phones instead of paying recycling fees

for waste mobile phone recycling. Furthermore, only 6.1% of con-

sumers thought that the ve stakeholders mentioned above should

participate jointly.

5.3.1. WTP

According to the beneciary pays principle, as the ultimate

beneciaries of production and services, consumers should be

responsible for a part of the charge for waste mobile phone recy-

cling and treatment. However, 52.1% of the consumers from the

questionnaire did not accept this view due to the current level of

economic development and the traditional concept of waste re-

sponsibility. Another 47.9% of consumers agreed to pay the costs of

recycling and treatment; however, the consumers had different

opinions regarding the payment method. Approximately 20.3%

wanted to pay deposits at the time of purchase, deducting costs

from the deposits and returning the remaining part when handing

in their e-waste products, and 15.7% believed recycling costs should

be embedding in the price of the product. The remaining 11.9% of

consumers were more inclined to pay the costs to the recyclers as

part of the actual e-waste collection.

In this case, consumers exhibited low WTP. About 65.2% of

consumers WTP was 0e5% of recycling costs, and 19.1% of con-

sumers WTP was 6e10%. Only a small number of consumers would

accept higher take-back fees.

5.3.2. Inuencing factors of WTP

This study determined the inuencing factors of WTP with a

multinomial logistic regression analysis in SPSS. WTP was set as the

dependent variable, and region, education level, and monthly in-

come were set to be inuencing factors. The signicant values of

the Chi-square test are all smaller than 0.01 (Table 7). Therefore,

these 3 WTP factors were signicant.

This study also indicated the relationships between WTP andthe 3 factors (Tables 8e10). The average values in the 3 tables

revealed that the number of consumers decreases as the WTP in-

creases. Moreover, when WTP was higher than 15%, the number of

consumers in regions A, B, C, D was only 7.7%, 6.5%, 5.6%, and 4.4%,

respectively. This implied that the consumers from developed areas

were willing to pay more for waste mobile phone recycling. When

WTP was lower than 5%, the percentages of the number of con-

sumers were similar in the 4 regions, and the level of economic

development had no signicant impact on WTP. Therefore, it could

be inferred that a payment of 5% of the recycling cost is accepted

nationwide.

WTP of consumers with different monthly incomes are shown

inTable 9. When WTP was higher than 15%, consumers with high-

income levels were still likely to participate in recycling programsin each W TP level (5.50%> 4.70%; 1.50% > 0.57%; 0.70% >0.33%).

When WTP was lower than 5%, there were no signicant differ-

ences regardless of whether the customersmonthly incomes were

above or below 3000 RMB. Consequently, consumers would likely

accept 5% of the recycling cost.

Table 10indicates the WTP of consumers with different edu-

cation levels. When WTP was lower than 10%, there was no obvious

distinction between more-educated and relatively less-educated

customers regarding e-waste recycling behaviour. However, when

WTP was higher than 10%, 17.5% of consumers with a master s

degree or above could accept this rate, 17.2% of the consumers in

Junior colleges and universities could accept it, and only 14.1% of

the consumers in senior high school or below could accept it.

Perhaps the reason behind these differences is that consumers witha higher education level are very knowledgeable and have a greater

environmental awareness.

Through the above analysis, it was concluded that monthly in-

come and education level have a positive relationship with the

Table 6

Mean value of the ve questions.

Question Q2-1 Q2-2 Q2-3 Q2-4 Q2-5

Mean value 1.46 2.96 2.45 1.78 1.90

Table 7

Likelihood ratio of test results.

Effect 2 Log likelihood of

reduced model

Chi-square df Sig.

Intercept 757.272 0.000 0

Region 842.449 85.178 15 0.000

Education level 828.672 71.400 20 0.000

Monthly income 878.285 121.013 25 0.000




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willingness of customers in waste mobile phone recycling. Mostconsumers could afford 5% of the recycling costs, so it was neces-

sary to regulate consumers economic responsibility based on the

survey.

6. Conclusions

According to the analysis of the questionnaire, the following

conclusions are proposed:

(1) Although the Chinese government has enacted 12 laws and

regulations to manage the recycling and treatment of e-

waste, a special legal framework on small WEEE aiming to

encourage stakeholders to participate in waste mobile

phones recycling is still necessary to be developed. All of the

current recycling activities in China are voluntary initiatives,

and there is no guarantee that consumers will participate in

the formal program because they can obtain a bonus by

selling their obsolete cell phones.

(2) This study indicated that in China, the actual service life of

mobile phones is generally less than 3 years, which is shorter

than the designed service life because of consumers un-

ceasing demand for new functions and styles. This leads to a

large quantity of waste mobile phones.

(3) There were 6 main ways that consumers could address their

waste mobile phones. About 47.1% of the consumersmobile

phones were stored at home, and most of the waste mobile

phones could not be recycled effectively, meaning that this

waste could be potentially hazardous to the environmentand that the manufacture of new phones would waste en-

ergy and resources.

(4) Consumers level of environmental awareness was low due

to the absence of environmental publicity and education in

China.

(5) It is very important to establish a reasonable and acceptable

recycling system to improve the recycling rate. The Old-for-

New activity, the Green Box Programand collection sites

in communities were more popular with consumers in the

questionnaire.

(6) The level of consumers environmental awareness was low,

especially regarding relevant knowledge of laws, policies and

systems. Most consumersWTP was 0e5% of recycling costs,

and the factors affecting the WTP were region, education

level and monthly income. Consumers with high-income

levels, higher education levels, and residing in developed

areas were more likely to pay for recycling.

7. Recommendations and further research

EPR was an important theory for determining the re-

sponsibilities regarding e-waste recycling. However, this theory

does not mean that only manufacturers should take chargeof the e-

waste recycling fee. The collaboration and coordination of multi-stakeholders is also a key component of EPR. Therefore, the gov-

ernment, manufacturers, sellers, mobile telecom carriers, profes-

sional recovery operators and consumers should all participate in

waste mobile phone recycling. As a government-dominating soci-

ety, the Chinese government should rst formulate specialised laws

and a complete reasonable management system on small WEEE.

Another important element is to encourage other stakeholders to

participate in waste mobile phone recycling, especially integration

of informal peddlers and private workshops into formal recycling

system through laws and economic incentives instead of simply

prohibiting these informal sectors (Qu et al., 2013). However,

considering the consumers traditions and the low WTP in China,

producers and the government should mostly share the re-

sponsibility of waste mobile phone recycling.In addition, it is important to support environmental education

to promote environmental awareness; environmental education

plays a major role in improving childrens future environmental

behavioural practices. Meanwhile, environmental publicity activ-

ities for the general public, at least for a short period of time, should

continue to be organised regularly in communities, enterprises,

government agencies and universities. Measures for recycling could

be effectively conducted only when consumers are fully knowl-

edgeable about e-waste (e.g., its harm, relevant management pol-

icies and recycling system) (Afroz et al., 2013; Song et al., 2012; Yoo

and Kwak, 2009). With the improvement of public environmental

awareness, it may be possible in the future for consumers to afford

some recycling fee either through a prepaid deposit or when pur-

chasing the product with the fee embedded in the price.Moreover, we should extend the service life of mobile phones

through three methods. First, manufacturers should extend the

designed service life of mobile phones with new technologies,

especially regarding the battery life. Second, consumers could

extend the actual service life of mobilephones through reduction of

their upgrading frequency, or through donation of unused phones

to others. Finally, the administrative departments should reorgan-

ise and standardise the secondary market, requiring second-hand

labels for second-hand phones.

This paper rst performed a questionnaire survey to analyse

consumersbehaviours, attitudes, and their WTP for recycling out-

dated mobile phones on a national scale. Due to limited resources

such as time, money and manpower, the respondents are anony-

mous through two distribution channels (i.e., an on-site and an on-

Table 8

Different willingness to pay of the 4 regions.

Region 0e5% 6e10% 11e15% 16e20% 21e25% More than 25%

A 65.50% 20.20% 6.60% 5.50% 2.20% 0.00%

B 65.70% 23.70% 3.90% 3.90% 0.00% 2.60%

C 64.80% 25.00% 4.50% 3.40% 1.10% 1.10%

D 65.60% 17.80% 12.20% 3.30% 1.10% 0.00%

Average 65.40% 21.70% 6.80% 4.03% 1.10% 0.90%

Table 9

WTP of different monthly incomes.

Monthly income 0e5% 6e10% 11e15% 16e20% 21e25% More than 25%

0 55.70% 29.60% 7.00% 6.10% 1.70% 0.00%

1e2000 79.00% 11.80% 2.60% 6.50% 0.00% 0.00%

2001e3000 74.10% 18.20% 5.20% 1.50% 0.00% 1.00%

Average 69.60% 19.87% 8.27% 4.70% 0.57% 0.33%

3001e5000 71.40% 11.10% 4.80% 9.50% 1.60% 1.60%

5001e8000 66.70% 16.70% 5.60% 5.60% 5.60% 0.00%

8001e1 5,0 00 8 5. 70% 1 4.3 0% 0. 00% 0 .00 % 0. 00% 0. 00 %

Average 69.4% 17.0% 5.90% 5.50% 1.50% 0.70%

Table 10

Different willingness to pay of different education level.

Edu cation l evel 0e5% 6e10% 11e1 5% 16e20% 21e25% More

than 25%

Senior High School

and Below

70.3% 15.6% 7.8% 6.3% 0.0% 0.0%

Junior College

and Bachelor

64.6% 21.8% 5.9% 6.1% 4.0% 1.2%

Master and Above 67.3% 19.3% 9.3% 2.7% 4.1% 1.4%

Average 66.4% 18.9% 7.7% 6.0% 2.7% 0.9%




9/9

line, web-site method). The advantages and disadvantages of each

survey method exist simultaneously. The utilisation of both

methods enabled a representative sample, but the data quality was

not high. For future research, we should aim to use face-to-face

interviews with well-trained interviewers to investigate the will-

ingness of different groups in different regions, and these surveys

would be valuable because they can provide most complete,

comprehensive and meaningful high-quality data.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous survey takers for

participating in this questionnaire.

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Please cite this article in press as: Yin, J., et al., Survey and analysis of consumersbehaviour of waste mobile phone recycling in China, Journal ofCl P d ti (2013) htt //d d i /10 1016/j j l 2013 10 006
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