The 'trade in' policy has benefited the people, but will the outdated old phones, appliances, and cars become 'electronic waste'? Is the recycling and disposal of old items safe and reliable? This issue is both a new hotspot for people's livelihood and a new business model for green development. A few days ago, the reporter learned from China Resources Recycling Group Co., Ltd. that the China Resources Recycling Mobile Phone Safety Recycling and Disposal Demonstration Project has completed trial operation and started to provide mobile phone safety recycling and disposal services to provincial capital cities. Consumers can place orders through the "Chip Worry Free" mini program. Is mobile phone recycling reliable? Let's start with the recycling journey of an old mobile phone - after digital products such as mobile phones were included in the national subsidy scope, Ms. Zhang, a resident of Shanghai, purchased a new mobile phone and handed it over to the recycling store in front of her home. On the same day, it was transported to a local enterprise with qualifications for dismantling and processing discarded electronic products. On the automated sorting line, an infrared spectrometer conducted a "full body physical examination" on the machine body, analyzing its metal content: "The main board contains 0.19 grams of silver, 25.8 grams of copper, and 0.015 grams of palladium, which meet the secondary utilization standards." When the main board was sent into the melting furnace, 0.034 grams of gold gradually precipitated. At the same time, the plastic shell is crushed and recycled into pellets, which can be used to make wood plastic composite products such as pallets; The miniature earpiece has undergone acoustic testing and will be sent to hearing aid factories to help people with hearing impairments rebuild their sound world... This old phone has "transformed" into raw materials for other new products, re entering people's lives. This kind of technological change and product transformation is not an isolated case. According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, the amount of recycled waste household appliances will exceed 630000 tons in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 14.83%, and the standardized dismantling of waste household appliances will increase by more than 20% year-on-year; The amount of scrapped cars recovered reached 7.872 million, a year-on-year increase of 70.7%. The "trade in" policy has driven a dual growth in the amount of recycling and dismantling, but the deeper question is: is it cost-effective to make great efforts to recycle these old items? Let's calculate three accounts. Let's talk about environmental accounts first. One ton of old mobile phones can extract approximately 400 grams of gold cumulatively; A scrapped car can recycle approximately 800 kilograms of steel and 40 kilograms of non-ferrous metals; For every ton of waste household appliances recycled, the regenerated resources can reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide by about 4.7 tons. Behind these data is the direct support of the circular economy for the "dual carbon" goal. Let's take another look at the economic accounts. China's resource recycling industry has driven employment for over 30 million people. The practice of the "Metal Recycling Base" in Taizhou, Zhejiang is more convincing: by dismantling waste mechanical and electrical equipment, an industrial cluster consisting of more than 100 enterprises has been formed locally, and the industrial output value of the recycled metal industry has reached 18.9 billion yuan, becoming a typical case of implementing the requirements of "cultivating and strengthening the resource recycling industry" in the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Waste Recycling System". There is also a security account. Real time monitoring of the entire process of transportation and destruction, and disclosure to consumers, the China Information and Environmental Protection Mobile Phone Security Recycling and Disposal Demonstration Project ensures personal information security throughout the entire process. This safety closed loop is a vivid practice of "coordinating development and safety". Good value for money, but there are obstacles in recycling. For example, it is inconvenient to recycle old items and there is no recycling point at home; Legitimate recycling prices are low, preferring to sell to street vendors; The technology of enterprises varies greatly, and the quality of recycled materials is unstable. To overcome obstacles, sincerity is necessary - Beijing has implemented the "e-recycling" platform, where citizens can scan codes to make appointments, estimate prices online, and recycle old household appliances with just one click; Guangdong will include recycling outlets in the 15 minute convenient living circle of cities; Anhui requires merchants to provide one-stop door-to-door services for home appliance delivery, collection, and disassembly, covering all rural areas. In a word, convenience is the key to popularity. The enterprise is not idle either. The second-hand e-commerce platform Xianyu has launched a carbon point account, where recycling old items can earn carbon points and exchange them for benefits; Gree Electric has established a reverse logistics recycling platform for waste household appliances, which will convert over 800000 tons of recycled copper, iron, aluminum, and other materials by the end of 2024. Today, we are paying attention to where the old goods have gone after the "trade in" policy, which not only reflects China's huge market demand for new goods, but also demonstrates the circular ability of the world's most complete industrial system. Ultimately, it is the strategic guidance of the new development concept in building a modern economic system. The key to moving towards the 'new' lies in the 'cycle'. This year's Government Work Report proposes to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, emphasizing the need to strengthen waste recycling and vigorously promote the use of recycled materials. Waste materials have transformed from "chicken ribs" to "rich minerals", and the circular economy has upgraded from "optional" to "necessary". In this systematic transformation from concept, technology to service, the green, gold, and new content of the Chinese economy are synchronously rising. (New Society)