Shenglai Zhu, Zhihan Hong, Feng Xu
China is expected to experience a substantial increase in photovoltaic (PV) module retirements, yet existing studies often examine recycling pathway performance, waste patterns, and network optimization separately. It remains unclear whether regions facing high retirement pressure also exhibit high recycling sustainability and under what conditions regionally coordinated recycling can alleviate this spatial mismatch. A provincial-scale assessment in China compares four treatment schemes for end-of-life crystalline silicon photovoltaic (EoL c-Si PV) modules, identifies mismatches between retirement pressure and recycling sustainability, and evaluates regionally coordinated recycling using interprovincial cases. Retirement pressure denotes the scale and spatial concentration of future EoL c-Si PV module retirements, whereas recycling sustainability integrates net environmental and economic benefits. The deepest recovery scheme generally delivers the greatest net environmental and economic benefits. Environmental impacts are mainly associated with transport distance, electricity mix, and waste treatment, whereas net economic benefits depend primarily on recovered-material selling discounts, silver and aluminium prices, and depreciation costs. At the provincial scale, 22.58 % of provinces exhibit high retirement pressure and relatively low recycling sustainability, with these provinces mainly located in northern China. Regionally coordinated recycling does not consistently outperform complete local recycling. Short-distance coordination yields costs and environmental impacts broadly comparable to those of complete local recycling. For long-distance coordination, thorough local pretreatment is required to reduce transferred mass and transport-related burdens. These findings support a strategic allocation of recycling functions across provinces as a conditional response to spatial mismatch, rather than a universal substitute for complete local recycling.