In order to improve the performance of the e-waste recycling scheme in Taiwan, this project finished the following tasks.
(1) Design and trial production of the shell of information products using 100% recycled plastics from e-waste with the safety standards passed.
(2) Reclassification of e-waste types considering the modified scheme from the EU WEEE directive.
(3) Field investigation on small home appliances collected by local authorities in six major cities. (a) No obvious problems for further sales or treatment of these waste appliances were found. (b) By estimation, for the 26 categories or 135 items of small home appliances, the new sales are about 92-103 thousand tons per year and their collection is about 42.6-57.7 thousand per year.
(4) Adjustment of the minimum requirement for refrigerant collection from air conditioners with the references from other countries. (a) For refrigerators and foamed refrigerant, the minimum standards remain the same level. (b) Facing the increasing collection of hydrocarbon refrigerant, safety issues should be followed. (c) For the absorbent refrigerators, the treatment of ammonia can be done by partial or total air evacuation, neutralization of ammonia with water or direct reuse of ammonia.
(5) Increase of recycling fees for home appliances to maintain the balance of the home appliance trust fund while the trust fund for information technology products is still under a stable condition.
(6) Develop 2 devices for data destroying. Demonstration of data destroying process for cellphones and pad devices at three retailor locations and one exhibition venue.
(7) Proposal of the electrical process for the reverse logistics of waste home appliance take-back program as well as 2 workshops for the practitioners and 30 auditing checks.
(8) A 4-day workshop with the participants of more than 60 foreign representatives in Taiwan from 16 countries to share the experiences of the recycling scheme and practices in Taiwan.