Characteristics and Dynamics of University Students’ Awareness of Retired Mobile Phones in China

Abstract

In order to obtain accurate data about university students’ awareness of retired mobile phones in China, a survey was conducted in both 2012 and 2020. There were 1011 respondents in 2012 and 1830 in 2020 that completed the questionnaire, respectively, aged 18–30 years old. This work proposes the following conclusions: lifetime is reduced from 1.95 years in 2012 to 1.92 years in 2020, with a standard deviation of 1.12 in 2012 and 0.99 in 2020; broken is the most common reason for replacements, but there are also many replacements caused by poor function, poor model, or stolen, while more than half of the retired mobile phones are stockpiled, instead of being donated or sold; voucher or cash incentives are the most efficient, while environmental and charitable incentives are also efficient; when participating in take-back services with mobile phones manufactured in the last five years, or even with broken ones, the expectant amount of cash refund is 20–300 CNY in 2012 and 20–500 CNY in 2020; most results are consistent with previous research, while the distinctions are important and helpful; policy implications are proposed to improve sustainable WEEE management systems.