has not enforced. Since the resumption of China’s One Country, Two Systems policy in 1997, Chinese policies only prevent e-waste from entering mainland China but not for licensed imports at Hong Kong ports. From Hong Kong, e-waste can be easily transported to the mainland or exported to other countries and back into China via illegal channels. A 2013 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) examining the e-waste trade showed that most of the e-waste originating in developed countries, such as the US, Japan, Korea, and various countries in the European Union (EU), was illegally bound for developing countries, including China. According to the study, 976,500 tonnes of illegal waste, including e-waste, was seized by Chinese authorities in 2013. In the same year, 211 cases of waste smuggling were halted by Chinese authorities. Recycling methods Formal According to a study done in 2020, China’s formal e-waste recycling industry is quite developed, following strict regulations, governmental incentives, and the development and expansion of recycling facilities. The formal recycling process practices safe methods of handling the waste and allows for the recovery of precious raw materials, which can later be reused in other manufacturing. E-waste recycling processes typically consist of the following steps: collection, storage, sorting/dismantling/shredding, separation, and recovery. E-waste is collected from enterprises or manufacturers and safely stored in recycling facilities until they are manually dismantled and sorted into categories of what to discard and what to recover. The smaller electronic parts are further separated into their specific materials using water and magnets, and finally, the desired components can be recovered and restored for future use. Despite the thoroughness of this formal recycling process, it is reported to be only about 40% efficient. Informal A main contributor to China’s e-waste problem is that the majority of e-waste dumped in China - reports vary between 60% and 80% - is handled through illegal informal recycling processes. Unlike China’s formal methods, informal e-waste recycling is extremely unregulated and unsafe, remaining a profitable market due to cheap labor and a high demand for the disposal of electronics. The informal sector consists of a system of small-scale, often family-run workshops and “backyard” recycling, usually performed by marginalized groups of the population. Peddlers travel from door-to-door and buy unwanted electronics, later reselling them to informal e-waste recyclers. The informal recycling process is often done in the open and uses extremely rudimentary methods such as stripping