Scrap Value.docVIP

Scrap Value 　　Wang Zhiwu has traded down from his Audi saloon, switching it for a used compact. Beijing’s anointed “King of Scrap” is feeling the pinch of the global economic downturn. 　　Wang is one of Beijing’s biggest electronic waste traders, with each of the two rows of bungalows flanking his 400-square-meter courtyard, close to the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium, packed to the rafters with circuit boards obtained from discarded television sets, computers, printers and other electrical appliances. 　　This stocky 38-year-old receives real-time fluctuation reports from the London Metal Exchange via his cellphone on each day of trading. However, the latest market data has left him feeling gloomy, with plummeting scrap metal prices weighing on his business. 　　What is worse, a new government policy on recycling, set to be implemented on July 1, will charge electrical appliance manufacturers in order to subsidize government-authorized “e-waste” recyclers ? a club Wang is locked out of. 　　 　　Hazardous 　　At a glance, Wang Zhiwu can estimate how much gold, silver and copper can be extracted from any heap of circuit boards, and his savvy has become legend in his field. Though more than 100 governmentauthorized “eco-friendly” e-waste disposal companies have opened in China in the last few years, the industry itself runs thanks to businessmen like Wang, supported by millions of small-time traders who go house-tohouse collecting scrap. In China, unlike in developed economies, recycling centers pay consumers for their unwanted electrical appliances. 　　Unlike these private enterprises, government-authorized recycling centers, subject to strict safety regulations and environmental restrictions, could not possibly make ends meet without government subsidies ? sustainable waste disposal is just too expensive. They certainly could not afford to pay citizens to dispose of their garbage. In contrast, Wang’s clients, most of them from recycling workshops in Guangdong, focus en