This paper takes mobile phone as an example to analyze the innovation of WEEE takeback system in Guangdong. With interviews on various enterprises at different stage along the recycling chain, three models of waste mobile phone collection were identified. Spatial analysis was conducted on the cost of reverse logistics under each model for waste mobile phone collection in Guangdong. The results show that Guangdong will have 16.62 million wasted mobile phones in 2020. The cost of collection for environmental recycling by the municipal waste transportation system is much cheaper than the cost of collection directly by producers. While considering the net profit of internet collection for second-hand sales, the internet collection is more profitable. In conclusion, it is suggested that the producer could integrate the different collection system into their reverse logistic system under the principle of EPR, using the profits from second market sales through internet to cover the cost of environmental recycling.

With a review on the community-based tool developed from common resource management in three perspectives: behavior studies, governance evolution, as well as the scale issue when addressing broader impacts of local collective actions, this paper presents an experimental garbage-sorting initiative in Hongfuyuan (H community), a residential community in northern suburb Beijing. Firstly, the behavior change of the participating households was studied as response to the continuous promotions for three years. The finding is that constant onsite communications were important in shaping people’s attitudes and behaviors, while economic incentives could be effective only in short term. Second, the evolution of the governance structure among all stakeholders in this program was reflected and compared with other communities using the same technology. The result shows that the difference in key enablers in the program could have significant impact on the sorting behavior in practice. Third, the discussion was extended from the community action to the urban waste management system in large, and suggested that the emerging scheme of Extended Producer Responsibility could be helpful to make this kind of programs into sustainable business model by including critical external players into the governance structure. In conclusion, the implications of this research were proposed to apply the participatory approaches in community planning by bridging the scientific research of material flow analysis to the social actions towards sustainable production and consumption.

This paper takes Shandong Province as example, one of the most aggressive regions in solar energy adoption in China, to examine the economic feasibility of recycling thin-film PV modules. Based on China 8760 electric power grid model and potential of solar demand, total installed capacity of solar photovoltaic cells and spatial distribution in 2050 are estimated. Benefit-cost analysis is conducted for the recycling of CIGS thin-film PV modules through the material flow analysis under three scenarios: 1) economy of scale, with one centralized recycling facility serving the whole province; 2) convenience for users, with two large recycling facilities closed to most populated cities, i.e. Jinan and Qingdao; 3) producer responsibility, four major PV producers in Shandong take back the end-of-life products and build recycling facilities close to their plants. The result shows that solution 3 has cost advantage in take back transportation. The paper discusses the potential to encourage producer responsibility in the PV manufacturing sector, and its implication in the entire energy industry.