In March this year, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in". Subsequently, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments successively issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Consumer Goods Trade-in" and the "Implementation Rules for Subsidies for Automobile Trade-in". Local governments have successively released implementation plans and introduced subsidy preferential policies.

After nearly two months, the reporter found that under the policy, the number of consumers willing to trade in has increased significantly. However, some consumers have encountered difficulties in recycling in the process. In particular, some old large household appliances are difficult to handle. Where are the blockages and difficulties? How to make consumers "easier to get rid of old ones and more willing to replace new ones"? Let's first look at the difficulties in home appliance recycling.

Mr. Meng, who lives in Beijing, recently wanted to buy a new refrigerator, but the old refrigerator has not been disposed of yet. "I spent more than 1,000 yuan when I bought this refrigerator. I have used it for three or four years. Now it looks a little small and old. I want to replace it with a new one, but I found a recycling worker and he only agreed to accept it for 20 yuan. It is too cheap."

Shang Libo, a resident of Qingdao, also said: "I bought the washing machine for more than 4,000 yuan. Now I check the recycling price online and it is only a few dozen yuan. I also bought a refrigerator for 3,000 or 4,000 yuan. Now it is only 10 or 8 yuan. I asked someone to come to recycle it, but they said no. It is not troublesome to lift it down. It is so heavy."

Why is the recycling price so low? The reporter saw a truck of used household appliances that had just been unloaded at this waste appliance recycling point.

The reporter learned in the interview that the recycling personnel do not refer to the brand and market price when recycling waste household appliances, but only estimate the price based on the size and transportation distance of the waste household appliances. In cities such as Beijing, the recycling cost is high because the transfer site rent is high and the location is relatively remote. The difficulty in small cities lies mainly in the small number of recycling outlets and the lack of large-scale and standardized recycling and processing enterprises.

Shi Feng, deputy manager of China Renewable Resources and Environment Co., Ltd., said: "At the recycling end, the enthusiasm of the front-end operators is not particularly high, and the profit is relatively low."

Why is "recycling" emphasized at the same time when replacing old household appliances with new ones?

In fact, in the relevant documents of this round of promotion of the old-for-new campaign for consumer goods, it is also mentioned that the recycling system of old household appliances should be improved. Why should recycling be emphasized? What is the value of recycled old household appliances?

In this old household appliance dismantling plant in Yutian, Hebei, the reporter saw workers skillfully dismantling refrigerators on the assembly line. Here, 3 million old household appliances can be dismantled every year, and 60,000 tons of resources can be recycled. Afterwards, these recycled materials extracted from old household appliances will be shipped to manufacturing companies to become raw materials for new products.

Experts said that renewable resources are an effective supplement to primary resources. In 2023, China will recycle about 260 million tons of scrap steel, ensuring more than 20% of crude steel production needs. As of now, China has more than 3 billion home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. Every year, 100 million to 120 million old home appliances are eliminated. If these old home appliances are not properly disposed of, they will harm our environment. Zhu Liyang, president of the China Circular Economy Association, said: "Old home appliances contain a large amount of heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and hazardous wastes such as fluorescent powder and waste oil. If they are dismantled through informal channels, the risk of environmental pollution will increase and serious waste of resources will be caused." Experts said that the entry of old home appliances into standardized recycling channels can not only reduce safety hazards and promote consumption, but also save resources, promote energy conservation and carbon reduction, and protect the environment. "Internet + Recycling" makes home appliance recycling more convenient Now it seems that low prices, few outlets, and no one to collect on site are the "embarrassing" problems encountered in the replacement of home appliances. How to clear the blockages and smooth the consumption cycle of household appliances? What practices are there in various places? Let's go to Hangzhou, Zhejiang to have a look.

Zhang Xiaoyi, who lives in Yuhang District, could not use his computer because it was old and damaged. With the recommendation of the community, he made an appointment for the recycling of used household appliances on the mobile app. The staff of the recycling company came to the door soon, and Zhang Xiaoyi received 20 yuan of environmental protection money.

These used household appliances will be clearly marked on the mobile app. After recycling, they will be transported to the sorting center for classification and storage, waiting to be sent to the downstream for disassembly and sale. Each household appliance will be affixed with a QR code, and the staff can scan it to enter the relevant information into the big data platform.

At present, Hangzhou, Zhejiang has established a full chain of used household appliances recycling from user recycling, transportation to disassembly enterprises. The reporter learned from the Yuhang District Bureau of Commerce that in 2023, the recycling of used household appliances in Yuhang District alone will exceed 82,000 tons, and the retail sales of household appliances will exceed 5.76 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.5%.

Fu Rong, director of the Yuhang District Commerce Bureau, said that she hopes consumers can exchange outdated home appliances for smarter, greener and more environmentally friendly high-tech products through trade-in, and enjoy the dividends of the era of rapid technological development.

Home appliance companies' recycling factories provide a "one-stop" service for recycling, disassembly and reuse

In Shandong, not only does the government implement relevant reward and subsidy programs to help home appliances trade-in, but some home appliance companies also use their production lines and logistics advantages to establish a more sophisticated waste home appliance recycling system. Let's take a look.

In this home appliance recycling interconnected factory in Laixi, Qingdao, Shandong, which integrates "recycling, disassembly, regeneration and reuse", the iron, aluminum, copper, and some hard plastics and wires produced by the disassembly of waste home appliances can be used as resources.

The person in charge did some calculations for us: taking a 220-liter refrigerator as an example, after disassembly and recycling, it can produce about 9 kilograms of plastic, 38.6 kilograms of iron, 0.6 kilograms of aluminum, and 1.4 kilograms of copper; and a drum washing machine can disassemble about 11 kilograms of plastic, 23 kilograms of iron, 1.5 kilograms of copper, and 0.5 kilograms of aluminum. These materials can be recycled.

Home appliance stores integrate resources to replace new ones while collecting old ones

In order to make it more convenient for people to replace home appliances, many shopping malls and e-commerce platforms have launched a one-stop service of "buy + collect old ones". Whether online or offline, when buying a new machine, just fill in the model of the old machine, and the express logistics personnel can come to collect it.

In this home appliance store in Beijing, the salesperson told reporters that according to Beijing's old-for-new subsidy policy and the preferential conditions of home appliance manufacturers, a home appliance can be discounted by up to 15%. At the same time, the price of used home appliances evaluated through the mini program can be deducted from the purchase of new machines. In the past, household appliances that cost 10,000 yuan can now be exchanged for more than 1,500 yuan cheaper, and manufacturers have also launched convenient services, where users can complete the exchange with just a tap of their phone.

It is easier to get rid of old appliances and more willing to get new ones

It is easier to get rid of old appliances and more willing to get new ones. By unblocking the channels for recycling and reuse, people can better enjoy the policy and upgrade their home appliances to smart and green ones, which will ultimately benefit energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental construction.

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