Brazilian firm Renxin Group is planning to invest US$2 million to construct the city's first treatment center for electronic appliances in Qingpu District next year.
The city government has appropriated more than 2 million yuan (US$240,964) in research funds and organized a group of scientists to help design an advanced disassembly and recycling line.
"We hope the treatment center will greatly reduce pollution brought about by improper treatment of household appliances," Hu Jialun, a deputy chief engineer of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
The construction of the center is expected to start early next year and the center will begin operation late next year. Capacity will be a total of 500,000 discarded TV sets and computers per year.
The treatment center will include a major workshop for sterilizing, disassembling and retrieving discarded appliances.
According to commission officials, the city discards about 300,000 used TV sets and 160,000 computers every year. Of those, about 20 percent can no longer be used and require treatment.
"Normally, the city's broken televisions and monitors are disassembled by laborers and then exported to outlying cities in neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces for very junior recycling use," Hu said.
Scientists say the conventional burning of household appliances can cause environmental harm.
"When an electronic panel is burned, it will produce high-density lead, causing extreme harm to the environment and people's health," said Zheng Jinbiao, a professor of material sciences at East China University of Science and Technology and one of the scientists involved in the project.
Zheng said the future treatment center will sterilize discarded appliances using ultraviolet light, disassemble the items either by manual labor or by machines and finally sort materials into plastics, metal and glass.
However, investors are worried about collecting enough household appliances for treatment.
Residents usually sell old TV sets to collecting stations for 50 to 300 yuan each.