Carbon Trading in China Reduces the Dependence of Household Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling on Government Subsidies

摘要: China’s enterprises of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling suffer from low profitability that is highly dependent on government subsidies. This low economic gain impedes the sustainable growth of China’s WEEE-recycling sector and also adds to the government’s financial burden. Prior life-cycle studies have approved the carbon reduction potentials or net carbon credit of recycling WEEE. However, policymakers fail to know whether the revenue from selling carbon credits can offset the government’s financial subsidy. We performed life-cycle and cost-benefit analyses for a case recycling enterprise that processes six categories of household appliances. The results show that the reduction potentials of greenhouse gases range from 930–3450 kgCO2e by recycling per ton of household appliances and materials substitution. The recycling enterprise would gain extra revenue ranging from 32 to …