How can discarded household appliances embark on a journey of "rebirth" after exchanging old for new?
2024-07-09
"A vertical air conditioner priced at 4999 yuan, with a maximum subsidy of 600 yuan, and free dismantling and transportation services for old units, is truly affordable and convenient for ordinary people!" Recently, after learning about the Sichuan Province's subsidy policy for replacing old appliances with new ones, Mr. Luo, a resident of Chengdu, quickly placed an order and replaced the old air conditioner that had been used at home for more than ten years. Throughout the process, he only needs to make payment, upload invoices and installation photos, and complete information filling to obtain the full process service of exchanging old for new. In June of this year, Sichuan took the policy of replacing old appliances with new ones as a specific measure to serve people's livelihoods, promote consumption, and promote high-quality development. At the same time, support policies were introduced, and all parties were coordinated to fully promote this project. At present, China's home appliance market has entered a peak period of renewal, and the relevant policies of exchanging old for new will undoubtedly further enhance the enthusiasm of users to purchase home appliances and stimulate the consumer market. At the same time, the "turning waste into treasure" path of waste home appliance equipment has also received more and more attention from enterprises, and upstream and downstream enterprises are actively participating in it, jointly digging rich "urban mines". Under the trend of exchanging old for new, how can discarded household appliances embark on a journey of "rebirth"? The reporter conducted in-depth interviews on this matter. After understanding the subsidy policy, some customers who were still hesitant about whether to replace their household appliances even retired and replaced all their "older" devices at once. In recent days, reporters have visited multiple home appliance shopping malls in Chengdu, and several salespeople interviewed said that due to the large subsidy, the policy of replacing old with new has greatly stimulated the consumption enthusiasm of the people, and the sales of various types of home appliances in the mall have also achieved a significant growth. In June of this year, Sichuan implemented special funds to promote the implementation of the "old for new" policy. Based on the number of expired household appliances provided by industry associations, the demand for "old for new" household appliances in the second half of the year in the province was calculated. Provincial, municipal, and county levels allocated 1 billion yuan of financial funds to carry out subsidies for "old for new" household appliances, with a target of 2 million units to be replaced. Government policies were adopted to guide production, sales, recycling, finance, and other enterprises to offer multiple benefits to consumers to the greatest extent possible. Among the first batch of over 900 companies participating in sales, many have also increased their promotional efforts. It is worth mentioning that Sichuan has also established an information system for exchanging old for new to promote the "one-stop processing" of subsidy applications. Among them, after purchasing new home appliances, consumers need to input information such as invoices and product brand models into the online system. After the recycling enterprise recycles old household appliances, it needs to enter the old for new certificate and photos of old household appliances with old machine labels in the system to achieve the collection and entry. Then, the purchased old household appliances can be sent to qualified waste household appliance dismantling enterprises for dismantling and processing. The participation of all parties is fully reflected in the information system, achieving closed-loop management of the entire sales recycling and dismantling chain. In addition, the convenience of the information system upload process has become an important factor in attracting active participation from all parties. The reporter learned that the new business opportunities brought by exchanging old for new have greatly benefited the entire industrial chain. Consumers can enjoy more services and discounts, and recycling and dismantling enterprises can receive corresponding subsidies. Merchants are entering the peak sales season, and manufacturers are more motivated to update and upgrade their products... According to data from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, since June 15th, Sichuan Home Electric has sold a total of 21800 units (sets) of home appliances through the old for new promotion, with a sales amount of 100.39 million yuan and a subsidy amount of 9.68 million yuan. The most popular sales categories among them are refrigerators (freezers), air conditioners, washing machines (dryers), televisions, etc. Decomposing a refrigerator only takes up to one minute. As a local well-established home appliance sales enterprise with over 30 years of experience, Sichuan Jiafulai Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. has been providing door-to-door services and keenly perceives the new business opportunities behind home appliance replacement. It has been preparing for the construction of an old home appliance recycling system for a long time. "Before customers purchase new home appliances, the company provides on-site evaluation services. After evaluating the old appliances, the company provides recycling subsidies, which not only offer better prices but also save customers the trouble of spending time and energy dealing with old appliances alone. This service has always been highly recognized." The relevant person in charge of the company stated. According to relevant data, since the beginning of this year, Jiafulai Company has collected a total of 12100 old household appliances, and in June, it collected 2653 old household appliances, mainly refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, televisions, and computers. These old household appliances will be sent to qualified professional dismantling companies after being recycled. Sichuan Zhongming Renewable Resources Comprehensive Utilization Co., Ltd. currently has four dismantling lines, including televisions, washing machines, air conditioners, and refrigerators, and can process up to 2.085 million units of discarded electrical and electronic products annually. According to the operation process, after entering the dismantling process, waste household appliances will go through multiple stages such as warehousing, weighing, and assigning traceability codes. Through effective classification of materials, about 95% of resources can be recycled and reused. "During the dismantling process, there is also an extremely important task of intercepting hazardous waste." Zheng Jiyong, the general manager of Zhongming Company, said that there are some extractable and reusable elements on these old home appliance components, but they are often accompanied by harmful substances to the environment such as lead acid and resin powder. Therefore, the professionalism of the dismantling procedure and operation directly affects the reuse rate of dismantling materials by downstream deep processing enterprises. "At most in one minute, a complete refrigerator can be decomposed into renewable materials such as copper, iron, and plastic." Zheng Jiyong told reporters that their job is to extract the remaining value of waste household appliances to the maximum extent possible, and then flow the available resources to the next level of deep processing enterprises according to the actual situation, starting their journey of "rebirth". According to publicly released data from the Ministry of Commerce, the number of major categories of household appliances in China exceeded 3 billion in 2023, with over 100 households owning air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions. According to the relevant standards of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, the safe service life of household washing machines and range hoods is generally 8 years, and the safe service life of household refrigerators and room air conditioners is 10 years. In March of this year, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Exchange, proposing a 30% increase in the amount of waste household appliances recycled by 2027 compared to 2023. "A considerable number of households in our country are purchasing household appliances during the implementation of the" old for new "policy in 2009, and are currently approaching or reaching the node of upgrading." The heads of interviewed electrical appliance sales companies, including Jiafulai, believe that at present, the strong driving force of policies is not only expected to inject new vitality into the home appliance industry, but also to further promote the green transformation and sustainable development of China's economy. It is worth mentioning that in the local area, the production practice of a waste home appliance recycling interconnection factory has received widespread social attention. The factory found through a large number of dismantling cases that a waste air conditioner can usually be dismantled into 55% steel, 17% copper, 11% plastic, and 7% aluminum. The dismantled materials are processed into recycled new materials, which can be used in products such as cups and cars. Only the dismantled aluminum can be used to manufacture 190 cans. "Decomposing waste mechanical and electrical equipment, communication tools, household appliances, and electronic products will reveal that the discarded plastics are 'urban oil fields' and the discarded paper is' urban forests'. The discarded resources need to be recycled and reused." Zheng Jiyong introduced that the company expects to obtain 44000 tons of various products from dismantling waste electrical appliances throughout the year, including 9000 tons of plastic, 8000 tons of steel, 1000 tons of non-ferrous metals, and 6000 tons of glass. "These scattered old electrical appliances in people's homes are like an inexhaustible 'urban mine', which will produce significant economic and social benefits.". Faced with the large-scale recycling of discarded household appliances brought about by exchanging old for new, some industry insiders have proposed suggestions for the sustainable development of the industry. Relevant departments should gradually integrate recycling enterprises and individual operators into unified management to improve the quality of circulation services; Emphasis should be placed on guiding recycling and dismantling enterprises to take the path of industrialization, agglomeration, and high quality. By improving quality and efficiency, and upgrading technology, the profitability of enterprises can be enhanced, thereby enhancing the endogenous driving force of recycling and dismantling enterprises. At the same time, accelerate the formulation and revision of valuation and evaluation rules, recycling standards, and other standards for waste household appliances. (Lai Xin She)
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：Worker Daily
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