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With the development of the economy and society and the improvement of residents' consumption level, household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and computers have almost become necessities of life. The replacement is getting faster and faster, and a large number of old household appliances are facing "retirement". Throwing them away makes people feel distressed, and not throwing them away takes up space. How to deal with the replaced old household appliances makes many families worry. How to turn waste household appliances into treasure?

Bid farewell to the days of renting a house for more than 4 years, Liu Xiaofeng, a resident of Chaoyang District, Beijing, happily moved into a new house and lived in a bright new house. While happy, Liu Xiaofeng had a new worry, how to deal with the replaced old household appliances?

The number is huge

In 2018, the theoretical scrap volume of used household appliances was about 150 million units, and it is optimistically estimated that 50%-60% were handled in a standardized manner

"I asked the vendors in the community, and they only sold them for a hundred yuan. These old household appliances have not been used for a long time. I can't bear to sell them at such a low price. If I take them away, there is no place to put them in the new house; if I give them away, no one around me needs them." Liu Xiaofeng was quite entangled.

Many people are facing the same troubles as Liu Xiaofeng. According to the "White Paper on the Recycling, Treatment and Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products in China 2018" released by the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, in 2018, the theoretical scrap volume of televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and computers ("four machines and one computer") in China was about 150 million units, and the scrap weight exceeded 4.06 million tons.

The number of used household appliances is huge, how is the recycling and treatment? According to statistics from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in 2018, 74.56 million discarded electrical and electronic products, including used household appliances, were processed in formal enterprises. "There is no formal statistics on the data of used household appliances in China. It is optimistically estimated that only 50%-60% of used household appliances are processed in a standardized manner," said Yu Keli, Secretary General of the China Material Recycling Association.

Where do the used household appliances go? "Most of the used household appliances are collected by small vendors. If the collected household appliances are relatively new or have minor problems, they can be repaired and sold in the second-hand market. The profit here is very lucrative. A color TV collected for a hundred yuan can be repaired and sold at double the price. For unusable household appliances, some useful parts are removed, and the remaining parts will flow into the dismantling plant." Du Huanzheng, Director of the Institute of Circular Economy at Tongji University, said.

If used household appliances are not properly disposed of, there will be great environmental risks. "Many old household appliances contain toxic and harmful substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. If they are disposed of at will, they will cause damage to the environment and human health." Du Huanzheng said that if they are handled in a standardized manner, old household appliances are a kind of recyclable resources. Old household appliances contain many non-ferrous metals, plastics, rubber, glass and other renewable resources that can be recycled. Some old electronic products also contain precious metals such as gold and silver.

Improve recycling

Reduce logistics costs, encourage the formation of a diversified recycling pattern, and let old household appliances flow to the "regular army"

At present, China's old household appliance recycling industry has diversified entities and various forms of recycling, most of which are recycled by individual vendors. According to the industry white paper, 94% of old televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines are recycled by small vendors, 89% of old computers are recycled by small vendors, and air conditioners, which have a relatively low proportion of individual recycling channels, have also reached 87%.

Why can't regular companies compete with small vendors in the recycling of old household appliances? Yu Keli said that this is mainly due to economic costs. "Formal enterprises have to bear operating costs, digest environmental costs, and pay more for manpower, transportation and other expenses. In addition, the public has little knowledge of formal recycling companies, and many residents still choose to sell their discarded old home appliances to scrap vendors."

A stable supply of goods is the survival basis of recycling companies. How to establish a perfect recycling system to let old home appliances flow to formal companies? "The recycling of used home appliances is a typical reverse logistics. From individual to centralized, the logistics cost is relatively high. The key to improving the recycling system is to reduce the logistics cost." Du Huanzheng suggested that the recycling should be integrated and integrated. "Not only electronic waste such as old household appliances, but also waste plastics, waste paper, and waste metals must be recycled as a whole to reduce costs." "Reverse logistics requires temporary storage space from point to surface. For example, if refrigerators are recycled in a community, 50 can be stored in a temporary storage place, and a car can take them away in one trip, so the logistics cost will be cost-effective." Du Huanzheng said that the government needs to give companies a certain amount of space subsidies and compensation for labor costs and environmental costs, and relieve companies of their worries through incentive policies such as green finance and tax incentives. In April 2019, Beijing released the first batch of 13 pilot units for the construction of a new recycling system for waste electrical and electronic products, and then released the second batch of 6 pilot units to encourage the formation of a diversified recycling pattern, including sanitation companies relying on the household waste classification collection network for recycling, production companies relying on after-sales service channels for recycling, sales companies recycling through "old for new" and other forms, and Internet companies realizing "Internet + recycling".

Turning waste into treasure

Establishing a waste electrical and electronic product processing fund to form an extrusion effect on the informal processing industry

On the waste refrigerator processing production line of Beijing Huaxin Green Source Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., the hazardous waste in the refrigerator compressor - Freon is first taken out and sealed for storage, and then the box is sent to the closed negative pressure crushing and sorting system. In less than 10 seconds, it becomes fragments. After magnetic separation and other processes, five products of iron, copper, aluminum, plastic and foam are separated. A 50-kilogram refrigerator can be disassembled into 36 kilograms of recyclable materials after processing.

The final transformation of waste household appliances into treasure is inseparable from the standardized processing of formal enterprises. Huaxin Green Source is one of the first 13 pilot units in Beijing. It can process about 1.5 million waste household appliances every year and generate more than 30,000 tons of renewable resources. "The disassembly process adopts a full physical method to protect the environment to the greatest extent." said Wang Jianming, general manager of the company.

¡°China has established a waste electrical and electronic product treatment fund, collecting funds from electrical and electronic product producers to subsidize the recycling and treatment costs of waste electrical and electronic products. Among them, the ¡®four machines and one computer¡¯ are included in the first batch of treatment catalogues.¡± Xiong Jing, deputy director of the General Office of the Solid Waste and Chemicals Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, introduced that under the incentive of fund subsidies, China has built 109 waste electrical and electronic product treatment companies. ¡°Under the guidance of fund subsidies, there has been a significant crowding-out effect on the informal treatment industry, especially the irregular dismantling of televisions has been basically controlled.¡±

According to data released by the Ministry of Finance, as of the end of 2018, the fund collected 16.7 billion yuan and allocated subsidies of 16.1 billion yuan, barely maintaining a balance.

"The actual scrap volume is far greater than the estimated scrap volume, and the stock of used household appliances is very large. The money collected is not enough to dismantle the accumulated used household appliances. In addition, the fund collection and subsidy standards are based on the estimated scrap volume. The collection standards are too low, and the subsidy standards for some categories are slightly higher, resulting in a gap in the fund." Yu Keli suggested that a dynamic adjustment mechanism for fund subsidy standards should be established as soon as possible to lower the subsidy standards for some categories and gradually achieve a balance between fund revenue and expenditure.

Xiong Jing said that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will work with the Ministry of Finance to adjust and improve the fund subsidy system, reasonably calculate the fund collection subsidy standards, and improve the fund collection and use management level; improve the fund review procedures, improve the efficiency of on-site review work, and strive to complete the review within half a year; promote the improvement of relevant laws and regulations, and accelerate the improvement of the extended producer responsibility system.

Chart: Zhang Danfeng

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