Barriers for household e-waste collection in China: Perspectives from formal collecting enterprises in Liaoning Province

Household e-wastes have been increasingly generated, which has brought environmental burdens in most countries, especially in rapidly developing countries. With the unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, China has faced more serious problems concerning household e-wastes. Moreover, informal e-waste collecting has brought environmental burden due to improper treatment of invaluable parts of e-wastes. Thus, formal e-waste collecting enterprises have emerged with support from the government. But they are still difficult to survive. This paper contributes to systematically identify barriers for formal channels of household e-waste collection in China considering different stakeholders such as the government, households, collectors, and treatment plants. Using perspectives from experts in e-wastes formal collecting enterprises in Liaoning Province, this paper develops three steps based on the method of grey-based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to reveal the most serious barriers in both the short and the long term by examining causal and effect relationships among these barriers. The results show that households' habits of selling e-wastes to peddlers is one key barrier, which should be carefully considered in the short term. Support from the government such as providing subsidy and tax reduction for formal collecting enterprises is elemental.