城市采矿工厂能够破解全球电子垃圾泛滥难题吗？

    不过，即使在欧洲，“目前也没有专门从电子废料中回收贵金属的工厂，”她说。

    然而，尽管蓝橡树公司的城市采矿厂“从生态的角度看，或许是我们需要的那种设施，”但这家工厂还需要克服一些关键的经济现实，美国自然资源保护委员会的赫什科维茨说。

    “亟需应对的挑战是，如何把电子垃圾送往这家工厂，因为目前只有一小部分电子垃圾被有效地回收再利用，”他补充说。“从经济角度来看，我们需要政府效仿欧洲的做法，强制要求电子消费类公司出资建造用来回收利用或翻新这些材料的基础设施。”

    在起初阶段，蓝橡树公司将依靠已经开始收集和拆解电子垃圾的供应商，但布拉多说，“我们希望在这个价值链中创造更多价值，以推动前端的回收利用。”

    她指出，作为一个鼓舞人心的典范，汽车行业的再循环比率目前已达到95%左右。“这是因为价值链的每个部分都有回收价值，”她说。“整个行业都在专心致志地确保资源能够回收利用。”

    作为另一种选择，就像押金退款制度已经被成功地用于鼓励容器回收一样，她说，电子产品或许也可以应用类似方案。

    无论采取哪种方式，布拉多解释说，“我们都希望整个价值链迅速增长，希望创建一个生态系统，以支持从电子产品中回收利用尽可能多的价值。这样一来，我们就不再把它看成一个废物流。”

    “我们需要看到真正的领导力”

    像蓝橡树公司城市采矿厂这类方式“有望成为电子垃圾解决方案的重要组成部分，它们能够回收嵌入电子设备的材料，从而减少对原生材料和生产这些材料所需能源的需求，”绿色和平组织(Greenpeace)资深IT分析师加里•库克说。

    库克表示，绿色和平组织还希望看到电子行业采取更有力的措施，比如更完善的回收计划，承诺使用再生材料生产电子产品。

    但这些努力必须由最高层率先推动。库克说，“我们还需要看到电子产品制造商展现出真正的领导力，需要它们设计、制造拥有更长生命周期的产品。” 他还援引了模块化手机制造商 Phonebloks和 Project Ara的例子。“它们不能继续设计一些使用两三年就不得不废弃的产品。”（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    Even there, though, “there are no facilities we’re aware of that are dedicated to recovering precious metals from electronic scrap,” she said.

    Yet while BlueOak’s urban mining refinery may be “exactly the kind of facility that we need from an ecological perspective,” some key economic realities will have to be overcome, NRDC’s Hershkowitz said.

    “The challenge here is going to be getting the electronic waste to the facility, because right now only a fraction of electronic waste is effectively recovered for recycling,” he added. “From an economic perspective, we need government requirements, as they have in Europe, that obligate the consumer products companies to participate in funding the infrastructure to recover these materials for recycling or refurbishment.”

    Initially, BlueOak will rely on suppliers that are already collecting and dismantling e-waste, but “our hope is that by creating more value in that value chain, that will promote the front-end recycling,” Bradoo said.

    The automotive industry is an inspiring model, she noted, with a recycling rate of about 95%. “That’s because you have value recovery from every part of that value chain,” she said. “An entire industry has focused on ensuring that there’s recycling.”

    Alternatively, much the way deposit-refund systems have been used successfully to encourage container recycling, it’s possible a similar scheme could be applied to electronics, she said.

    Either way, “we want the entire value chain to grow and to create an ecosystem that supports the overall recycling and recovery of as much value as possible from electronics so we don’t think of it as a waste stream,” Bradoo explained.

    ‘We need to see real leadership’

    Approaches like BlueOak’s urban mining refinery “have the potential to be an important part of the solution, to recycle the materials embedded in these devices, reducing the demand for virgin materials and the energy needed to produce them,” said Gary Cook, a senior IT analyst with Greenpeace.

    Greenpeace also wants to see more robust efforts from the electronics sector, Cook said, such as stronger take-back programs and a commitment to using recycled materials in electronics products.

    But it starts at the top. “What we also need to see is real leadership from electronics manufacturers in creating products that are designed to have a longer life,” Cook said, citing the example of modular mobile phones such as Phonebloks and Project Ara, “and not designed for the dump in two to three years.”