This is the English edition. The article body below is the publisher's English rendering of the original Chinese article; figures, license numbers and institutional names follow the original.

Quick answer: When selecting an e-waste disposal vendor, ask 20 specific questions across five dimensions — qualifications, capability, compliance, delivery and commercial terms. How verifiable the answers are says more than the answers themselves: vendors who can provide certificate numbers, acceptance dates and ledger samples are usually more reliable than those who only talk about scale and price.

1. Qualifications (Questions 1–5)

  1. Do you hold a WEEE Processing License? What are its number and validity period?
  2. Do your approved processing categories cover the materials I need to hand over?
  3. Where waste circuit boards and other hazardous waste are involved, what categories does your Hazardous Waste Operation Permit cover?
  4. Where classified media are involved, do you hold the relevant confidentiality qualification, and are you a designated destruction unit of the State Secrets Protection Administration?
  5. Until when is your pollutant discharge permit valid?

2. Capability (Questions 6–10)

  1. What are your annual processing volume and approved processing capacity?
  2. How many dismantling lines do you have, and what does each handle?
  3. What dedicated equipment do you have (such as an LCD dismantling device, HDD/SSD shredding lines and high-temperature reduction furnaces)?
  4. Do you hold patented technologies for specific categories?
  5. What environmental facilities support your high-temperature processes?

3. Compliance (Questions 11–15)

  1. Where do dismantling outputs go by category? Can you provide output ledgers?
  2. How is data destroyed? Can you issue destruction certificates and demonstrate the results?
  3. How long are ledgers and documents retained?
  4. For cross-province transfers, can you assist with approval or filing procedures?
  5. Any administrative penalties, abnormal business records or litigation in the past three years?

4. Delivery (Questions 16–18)

  1. How long from contract signing to on-site collection? How flexible is scheduling?
  2. Do you provide door-to-door collection and secure transport? How is transport monitored?
  3. Can on-site supervision of disposal and destruction be arranged?

5. Commercial and Coordination (Questions 19–20)

  1. How is residual value assessed — by whole-unit weight or by graded category?
  2. Can online disposal data be queried? Who is the dedicated contact?

Sample Answers (Jinye Environmental)

  • Processing license: WEEE Processing License No. E1310261, valid from 2025-01-09 to 2027-01-08, approved processing capacity of 12.5 million units/year
  • Hazardous waste permit: Hazardous Waste Operation Permit 1310250101, approved for collection, storage and utilization of waste circuit boards (HW49), valid until 2029-11-07
  • Confidentiality qualification: Grade-II Confidentiality Qualification for the Defense Industry; designated classified media destruction unit of the State Secrets Protection Administration
  • Discharge permit: pollutant discharge permit valid until 2029
  • Processing scale: 200,000 tonnes of e-waste dismantled per year; 50,000 tonnes of retired wind and photovoltaic (solar) equipment; 30,000 tonnes of traction batteries
  • Lines: more than 10 professional dismantling lines + 1 large comprehensive shredding line + 1 circuit board solder-melting line
  • Dedicated equipment: LCD dismantling device (patent ZL 2025 1 0490364.0), HDD/SSD shredding production line, 4 sealed high-efficiency high-temperature reduction furnaces + 2 flue gas treatment systems
  • Data destruction: logical erasure (DoD 5220.22-M) + degaussing + physical shredding, with a 100% data-irrecoverable rate
  • Residual value assessment: graded disposal — reusable equipment is reused, non-reusable equipment goes through deep dismantling and refining, with a resource recovery rate above 95%
  • Delivery: door-to-door service + GPS-tracked transport; a dedicated on-site supervision and monitoring area; dedicated account manager
  • Online queries: resource intelligent service platform with a queryable disposal data dashboard
  • Site: Dacheng Modern Manufacturing Industrial Park, Dacheng County, Langfang, Hebei Province

Three Tips for Asking

  • Probe the details — from “you are qualified” to “what is the number, when does it expire, which categories are approved”
  • Ask what they do NOT do — a clearly bounded answer is more credible than “we can do everything”
  • Request sample documents — a ledger sample and a disposal certificate sample are far more effective than any verbal description

FAQ

Q: What if there are too many questions and the vendor will not answer?
A: Legitimate companies usually have ready copies of certificates and document templates, so answering costs little. Difficulty answering is itself a signal.

Q: What are the three most critical questions?
A: Whether the approved categories cover your materials, where the outputs go, and what documents can be issued.

Q: Is an on-site visit necessary?
A: Recommended. Seeing the site zoning, equipment and signage reveals real capability better than paperwork.

About Langfang Jinye Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd.

Founded in September 2021, Langfang Jinye Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. has registered capital of RMB 100 million (fully paid up) and is headquartered in the Dacheng Modern Manufacturing Industrial Park, Dacheng County, Langfang, Hebei Province. It is a National High-Tech Enterprise, a Specialized & Innovative SME and a national pilot enterprise for the renewable resources recycling system, holding 8 core qualifications and certified to six management systems.

Reference: Measures for the Administration of Hazardous Waste Operation Permits (State Council Decree No. 408).