China Fluorescent Lamps collection and treatment demonstration project (Project CFL)

According to data from the China Association of Lighting Industry, about 6.69 billion fluorescent lamps were produced at 2010 in China. Thus, with an estimated service life of 2 years and assuming fluorescent lamps contain an average 5mg of mercury, about 35 tons of mercury will be generated from waste fluorescent lamps in 2012. Although waste fluorescent lamps are classified as a hazardous waste in the “China National List of Hazardous Waste”, the practical implementation of their waste management is far from satisfactory due to (i) a general lack of detailed policies, regulations, and collection systems targeting end-users; (ii) a lack of appropriate pollution control technology; a lack of technical guidelines and/or standards on waste fluorescent lamps treatment and recycling and (iii) the absence of strict supervision and enforcement. As a result, most waste fluorescent lamps are disposed together with municipal solid waste, into landfills or incinerators, which causes serious pollution. The Chinese Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) directive (Management measure of pollution control of electronic and information products) mentions mercury, but does not cover the management of fluorescent lamps. According to published papers, 70% of total generated waste fluorescent lamps were disposed along with municipal solid waste in Beijing. Most of the rest of the 30% are collect as resource without considering the mercury control. In Chengdu, few have even considered the better management of waste fluorescent lamps and therefore limited data is available. Although the local government in Beijing has attached importance to the waste fluorescent lamp issue and also taken active steps to introduce their separate collection and disposal, there is still no comprehensive collection system which involves communities and consumer groups, related national and local management policies, and Best Available Technologies and Best Environmental Practices (BAT/BEP) for collection, transportation, treatment and recycling, nor sufficient public awareness. The project, a cooperation between the Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Institute of Waste Management (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna) and local partners, intends to ameliorate local collection and treatment strategies for waste fluorescent lamps in China based on EU experience on legislation, BAT/BEP for collection, transportation, treatment and recycling and funding practice. Indicators of the Specific Objective include: (i) 8 demonstrations conducted in two Chinese megacities, which achieve an average collection ratio of separated WFLs of 60% (ii) 2 demonstrations of transportation and treatment of WFLs conforming to all relevant regulations and standards regarding pollution and recycling; (iii) One Chinese megacity adopts a pilot policy scheme on WFLs for group consumers; (iv) A complete package of all required knowledge products to implement municipal-level collection and treatment schemes for group consumers; (v) National-level policy recommendations on collection and recycling of WFLs submitted and discussed with all relevant national policy makers; (vi) 6 other cities and provinces in which relevant government stakeholders are aware of project approaches. The results of the action will provide experience for other cities, and countries with similar situations.