China's e-waste disposal town transforms into national recycling hub

China's southern town of Guiyu, once plagued by heavy pollution from the treatment of electronic waste, has transformed into a national recycling hub, playing an important role in the country's efforts to develop its circular economy and achieve carbon neutrality.

Located in Shantou City of Guangdong Province, Guiyu, once the heartland of China's e-waste disposal, used to feature numerous family-run workshops where residents dismantled e-waste by hand using the most primitive way. Due to the high costs of pollution control equipment, Guiyu's environment suffered, with air often filled with an acrid stench.

The turning point came in 2015 with the launch of the Guiyu Circular Economy Industrial Park, and informal e-waste businesses began to relocate to the park. The goal is to achieve zero waste in the industrial park -- all components that can be reused are recycled, while the rest is processed for valuable material extraction.

Today, the park has evolved into an automated recycling hub for precise and efficient dismantling, with clear systems in place tracking various types of e-waste.

"We recycle all kinds of items, including keyboards and DVD players. We can accurately track which workshop receives e-waste and the timing of these transfers. We also monitor the sources and destinations of all e-waste," said Zhong Yingshan, director of the management committee at the park.

Guiyu is also home to China's first mobile phone safe recycling and disposal demonstration base, which began trial operations in January. A new device has been introduced that efficiently recycles heavy metals from mobile phone circuit boards for centralized and harmless disposal. Currently, the base processes 12,000 tons of waste circuit boards each year.

In recent years, China has consistently strengthened the top-level design of green and low-carbon development. A series of policies implemented by the government have supported the growth of the circular economy and the resource recycling industry.

To promote the development of the circular economy, China established a centrally administered state-owned enterprise, China Resources Recycling Group Co., in October 2024 in Tianjin. The company established nine new subsidiaries just recently, covering areas such as power batteries, new energy, non-ferrous metals and other resource recycling sectors.

According to China's plan for circular economy development during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, by this year, the resource recycling industry system will be established, with the output value reaching 5 trillion yuan (about 697.3 billion U.S. dollars).

China's resource-recycling industry is evolving from traditional recycling practices to a high-tech, high-quality sector, according to Zhu Liyang, president of the China Association of Circular Economy.

"In the future, government experts and private enterprises will collaborate to promote the upgrading of the resource recycling industry towards greater standardization, higher value and enhanced efficiency," said Zhu.

China's e-waste disposal town transforms into national recycling hub

India, home to one of the world's youngest populations, is witnessing a growing number of students heading to China in search of quality education and stronger career prospects.

Fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics and engineering are seeing a notable rise in enrollments.

Naresh Patra, a researcher in astrophysics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, chose to study in China for what he describes as the excellent value for the potential boost to his career.

"First thing, the education system is very good and expenses are too low. And second point [is that] you will get good exposure about machine learning and AI, and third point you will get jobs immediately after passing from these universities," said Naresh Patra, a student from India.

There has been a noticeable surge in inquiries from Indian students for courses in engineering and artificial intelligence. To attract more international applicants, Chinese universities have ramped up investment in world-class infrastructure, including advanced laboratories, while expanding scholarship offerings across a wide range of disciplines.

Akshay Bhambri is among those who secured such a scholarship, supporting his research in traditional medicine. He describes his academic experience in China as highly professional and well-structured.

"In different departments, there are enough resources to do that, and even in libraries, whatever you need is provided immediately to you. So this kind of environment for a researcher, for a student, be it undergrad or PhD student, is very helpful when they want to do some kind of research or some kind of understanding to get what they want immediately, so that they can excel in their work," said the researcher.

Cross-border studies are also foundational to forming academic partnerships between China and India, but experts say that even greater outreach and engagement are needed.

"It will be more possible if there is a higher level, not just the people-to-people level, but (if) we see the authorities from both sides interact, and university-to-university interactions, in that case, there would be a lot of confidence building," said Nishith Shah, principal of India China Academy.

More Indian students choose Chinese universities for quality education