The Shanghai Hazardous Waste Management Center will start a six-month study next month to explore effective ways of recycling electronic waste.

Electronic waste such as CD-ROMs and computers pose a growing hazard to the environment that has prompted the local government to consider solutions, center officials said.

No regulations or laws exist, meaning the hazardous waste is dumped at regular landfill sites without treatment.

"Electronic waste is not under our control as the government has not enacted any laws about it," said Zhou Yuming, director of the hazardous waste management center.

The city consumes more than 30 million CD-ROMs every year and the number is increasing by 24 percent yearly. Yet many people are unaware of the pollution caused by discarded disks.

Experts said the high cost of recycling is the biggest problem. Presently, it costs several times the original production cost of a disk to recycle it.

Since there is no official channel to collect and process discarded CD-ROMs, some underground factories produce water buckets and medical products with the toxic plastic.

(eastday.com March 8, 2004)