The State Council recently issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods", which deploys and implements four major actions: equipment renewal, trade-in of consumer goods, recycling, and standard improvement. The recycling action focuses on recycling, second-hand circulation, recycling, etc. link. Why is recycling included in the four major actions? How to further unblock recycling channels?
The key link in “replacing the old with the new”
Effective recycling of waste resources is equivalent to developing a "second mine", which can reduce the demand for primary resources and reduce the pressure of mineral resource mining on the natural environment. At the same time, it can also create a broad market space for the development of the renewable resource recycling industry. At present, there are more than 260,000 resource recycling companies in my country, with an output value of more than 3.5 trillion yuan. It is expected that by 2025, the output value will reach 5 trillion yuan.
In the "Action Plan", trade-in includes automobiles, home appliances, electronic products and other consumer goods. According to statistics, more than 200 million units of major electrical products are scrapped in my country every year, with an average annual growth rate of 20%. These scrap products and equipment contain a large amount of recyclable steel, non-ferrous metals, precious metals, plastics, rubber and other resources.
"The recycling and recycling action is committed to opening up the vein industry, ensuring that waste items can be efficiently recycled, scientifically processed and reused, thereby realizing the smooth connection of the industrial chain." Zhao Weiquan, deputy director of the Economic Development and Reform Department of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, believes that this It is not only a key measure to implement a comprehensive conservation strategy and improve the efficiency of resource use, but is also of great significance to environmental protection and sustainable development.
Tang Yanju, secretary-general of the China Renewable Resources Recycling Association, said that the implementation of recycling activities is a key link and important measure to promote the replacement of old consumer goods with new ones, and can ensure the proper disposal and recycling of all types of old products. Promoting the flow of waste electrical products into standardized recycling and dismantling channels is environmentally friendly and safe, and at the same time can obtain recyclable renewable resources, which is conducive to alleviating external dependence on resources and ensuring resource security.
Recycling can also achieve multi-dimensional carbon reduction through different levels of utilization such as recycling, second-hand commodity trading, and remanufacturing. Zhu Liyang, president of the China Circular Economy Association, said that recycling can effectively reduce carbon emissions during raw material mining, transportation and production and processing; second-hand commodity trading and remanufacturing can extend the service life of products. According to estimates, in 2022, my country will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 3 billion tons by promoting waste recycling. It is expected that by 2025, the comprehensive contribution rate of the circular economy to my country's carbon emission reduction will exceed 30%.
Take multiple measures to solve recycling problems
According to data from the China Circular Economy Association, the average lifespan of a mobile phone is about 2.2 years. Our country produces an average of more than 400 million used mobile phones every year, but only about 5% of used mobile phones can enter recycling channels such as professional recycling platforms and "old-for-new" activities.
What's the crux? On the one hand, used products “cannot be sold at a high price”. In a market environment where valuation models are opaque and recycling standards are not uniform, consumers have questioned the standardization of the recycling market. On the other hand, consumers have “worries about their future”. Smartphones store a large amount of personal information. Even if they are formatted or restored to factory settings, people are worried about information security issues.
Zhao Weiquan said that recycling does face some challenges at present. For example, the recycling network is not yet complete, the number of standardized trading sites is limited, and the construction of transfer stations and sorting centers is also relatively lagging behind; recycling entities are generally small in scale and weak in strength, which affects recycling efficiency and quality to a certain extent; The degree of industrial agglomeration needs to be improved, and the construction of industrial bases and parks still needs to be strengthened.
The "Action Plan" focuses on the outstanding problems encountered in the recycling of used equipment and products generated by residents and enterprises, proposes to accelerate the development of "replacement + recycling" logistics systems and new models, supports enterprises in building reverse logistics systems, and promotes door-to-door car pick-up service models. etc., further unblocking the standardized recycling channels for scrapped cars, used household appliances and furniture and other products, promoting the establishment of a wide-coverage, convenient and fast recycling network, and improving the recycling channels for office equipment of public institutions.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the management of platform enterprises and strive to standardize the circulation and transactions of second-hand goods. In recent years, the size of the second-hand idle market has exceeded one trillion yuan, with hundreds of millions of users. According to statistics, the transaction volume of second-hand cars in 2023 will reach 18.4133 million units, a year-on-year increase of 14.88%.
The "Action Plan" addresses problems such as non-standard and inconvenient second-hand trading markets, deploys and optimizes measures to facilitate second-hand car transaction registration, guides second-hand commodity trading platforms to establish and improve credit evaluation mechanisms, and further standardizes the circulation order of second-hand goods such as second-hand cars and second-hand electronic products. and trading behavior, strengthening the management responsibility of the trading platform.
Wang Xiaoyu, senior vice president of Guazi Used Cars, said that Guazi Used Cars has implemented strict standards in establishing a corporate evaluation mechanism, established a second-hand car dealer grading system, ensured that all vehicles must pass official professional inspections, and introduced a third-party video vehicle inspection service , ensuring the transparency of the vehicle inspection process.
Improve the level of resource recycling and utilization
The Action Plan proposes to promote high-level recycling of resources. Promote the agglomeration and large-scale development of renewable resource processing and utilization enterprises, and guide the gradual withdrawal of inefficient production capacity. Improve support policies for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic products, and study and expand the coverage of the disposal system for waste electrical and electronic products. Support the construction of a number of industrial clusters for the intensive processing of renewable resources such as scrap steel, scrap non-ferrous metals, and waste plastics.
Zhao Weiquan said that the supply and marketing cooperative system will further leverage its industrial and organizational advantages and speed up its improvement with leading enterprises as the leader, county (district) sorting centers as the support, township (street) transfer stations as the nodes, and village (community) recycling outlets as the terminals. , a renewable resource recycling network that integrates online and offline to improve recycling levels.
China Renewable Resources Group, a subsidiary of China Supply and Marketing Group, is a comprehensive domestic renewable resource recycling enterprise. In 2022, it will recycle and dispose of more than 20 million tons of various types of renewable resources. Wang Yunli, vice chairman of China Renewable Resources Development Co., Ltd., said that China Recycling Group will continue to improve and improve the recycling network of renewable resources, give full play to the leading and driving role of the leading enterprise in the dismantling of waste household appliances, and make every effort to improve various types of waste consumer goods including household appliances. recycling capabilities. At the same time, we will strengthen cooperation with large home appliance manufacturers, carry out business cooperation such as recycling of defective products and trade-in, and improve front-end resource control capabilities.
In addition, the recycling of used products and equipment requires coordinating resources in various fields, bringing together the government, enterprises, scientific research institutions and the public to achieve a good combination of "policy, market, technology and society". Zhu Liyang said that it is necessary to speed up the improvement of relevant laws and regulations, strengthen the supervision and management of the recycling and utilization of waste products and equipment; promote enterprises to make great efforts in independent innovation, actively explore new business models and management models; increase investment in scientific research institutions, explore more Environmentally friendly and efficient recycling technology, strengthen the transformation of scientific and technological achievements; mobilize the public to actively practice the concept of green consumption, and proactively trade obsolete cars, home appliances, mobile phones and other waste products in regulated second-hand markets, or hand them over to regulated recycling Dismantle enterprises for disposal and achieve efficient recycling of resources.
(Economic Daily Liu Jin)