Carbon footprint accounting of E-waste dismantling process in China: field-based research

Abstract E-waste has become the fastest-growing category of household waste globally. However, there is no consensus on carbon footprint accounting and species Discrepancy of the e-waste recycling process in China. This paper first explores the accounting method for carbon footprint in the e-waste Dismantling process. After that, the carbon footprint inventory of dismantling process is produced by finely matching the daily electricity consumption of key energy-using facilities and the daily dismantling volume of five types of e-waste. Finally, combining the changes in the annual dismantling volume and the proportion of e-waste dismantling types, it is found that inter-annual change of carbon footprint is not only closely related to the trend of total dismantling volume that first increases and then stabilizes from 2013 to 2020, but also due to the gradual increase in the industry's average carbon emissions of Dismantling a single unit from 1.2513 kgCO 2 /unit to 1.3335 kgCO 2 /unit. The results show that there are significant differences in the carbon emission factors of five types of e-waste products. Refrigerators have a higher carbon emission factor due to the complex dismantling process and higher energy consumption, and conversely, TVs have a lower carbon emission factor. Carbon footprint from e-waste dismantling process in China show a trend of "regional agglomeration + single point prominence". Graphical Abstract