Informal recycling is critical for research and analysis of e-waste management solutions in China, not only because it is directly associated with a set of negative and problematic consequences including environmental and biological damages, supply shortage of the formal recycling sector and quality problems of remanufactured EE products, but also because the multiple roles it has been playing in the domestic recycling chain, e.g. major collector of
household appliances, stable supplier of second-hand EE products and primary processor of imported e-wastes. The emergence and growth of informal recycling is the result of intricate interactions between economic incentives, regulation gaps, industrial interdependence and the social reality of developing countries. Informal recycling may remain an influential recycling force for years to come in the collection and treatment of e-waste in China, and the missing public awareness of e-waste toxicity and consumers’ common habits of selling rather than paying for old EEEs are just some of the factors supporting persistent existence of informal
recycling.