On The Function Of Government During The Governance Of Guangdong’e-waste

According to an investigation report by United Nations University, global e-waste growsby40million tons per year. It was estimated that in2010the annual output of e-waste inChina reached2.3million, only next to the US. By the year of2020the growth will be bygeometric progression. If not properly disposed of, e-waste will severely contaminate air,water and soil. What’s more, the impact of e-waste on people’s health has been a social hotspot. This thesis takes Guangdong Province with a large production and consumption ofelectronic products in China as its object and explores the role of People’s Government ofGuangdong Province in e-waste treatment, aiming at putting forward some countermeasuresto the treatment of e-waste in response to the establishment of―Green Guangdong‖and―Beautiful Guangdong‖, which is proposed by People’s Government of Guangdong Province.Based on the theory of Circulatory Economy, this thesis probes into the circulardevelopment of electronic industry in Guangdong Province and it also investigates thetreatment of e-waste in Guangdong Province with the help of the theory of Public Governance.The thesis is mainly based on Professor Elinor Ostrom’s Ideology of Public Governance and itdiscusses the current situation of e-waste treatment in Guangdong Province from threeperspectives, namely Polycentric Governance, Self-Governance Theory and Social CapitalTheory. It shows that there exist some shortcomings in the function of the government. First,the government neglects to cultivate the market, which is reflected in the unclear policy ofpromoting the green design of electronic products and in the lack of enough support fore-waste treatment enterprises. Second, the system of autonomous management of e-waste isincomplete. For instance, the Extended Producer Responsibility is not clear, nor is theConsumer Responsibility. Last, the government is deficient in raising public awareness ofe-waste treatment. For example, there is little public service advertising for e-waste in presentenvironmental publicity and education. The reasons are as follows. First, the Idea ofPerformance Measurement of Government has not been changed. Not to mention theformation of the consciousness of treatment. Besides, the legal environment of e-wastetreatment is deficient and the system of law-enforcing supervision is imperfect，which causesmultiple leadership and poor law enforcement. Last, alienating from the masses andneglecting Mass Participation are also the causes.On the basis of the e-waste treatment experience at home and abroad, this thesissummarizes the current situation of the treatment of e-waste in Guangdong Province. Fromthree aspects of Elinor Ostrom’s Ideology of Public Governance, three suggestions are proposed: first, the Government should play a leading role in the polycentric governance ofe-waste; second, the establishment of the system of autonomous management of e-wasteshould be accelerated and achieved; last, a good environment of e-waste utilization andtreatment should be built to a large extent.