Hundreds of millions of old home appliances are approaching the "retirement period", and the home appliance recycling market urgently needs a "regular army"

"Collect old color TVs, old computers..." There are still junk dealers shouting outside some districts in Guangdong. In addition, the phone numbers of local junk dealers are also circulating in various owner groups. Therefore, make a call and wait for the door. Recycling has become a common method for many consumers to dispose of old appliances.

In order to better promote home appliance manufacturers to carry out recycling target responsibility system actions, recently, relevant meetings of the Industry Department of the National Development and Reform Commission conducted in-depth discussions on strengthening the construction of reverse recycling logistics, optimizing recycling channels, and innovating home appliance trade-in models.

In fact, before this, the National Development and Reform Commission has launched a series of policies on the recycling of old home appliances, encouraging home appliance manufacturers to recycle used home appliances and promoting the renewal and consumption of home appliances.

The reporter's investigation found that the "guerrillas" are still behind my country's waste home appliance recycling market. Some waste home appliances have been dismantled or refurbished irregularly and entered the second-hand market, which has many hidden dangers.

Why is there less "regular army" in the waste home appliance recycling market, and what is the model behind the old home appliance recycling system? On January 18, a reporter from "China Business News" called and wrote to Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gree Electric Appliances"). , 000651.SZ) and other companies.

In this regard, Gree Electric responded: "For the recycled old home appliances, Gree has a relatively mature circular development model of 'green design - green manufacturing - green recycling'. We have established five environmental protection treatment bases for renewable resources in Changsha, Wuhu, Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang and Tianjin.”

The scrapping of old appliances is at its peak

"I have never realized whether the use period of home appliances has expired. In my impression, home appliances are generally updated when they fail, and new home appliances are purchased to replace." Mr. Zhao from Foshan told reporters. And Mr. Zhao's home appliance consumption concept is also the epitome of the behavior of many consumer groups.

According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of household appliances in my country has exceeded 2.1 billion, and a considerable number of household appliances are purchased when my country implemented the trade-in policy from 2009 to 2011. This part of home appliances is about to enter or has entered the period of replacement and renewal, and is in the peak period of scrapping home appliances.

"According to the group standard for the safe service life of household appliances, there are currently more than 100 million household appliances in my country that have exceeded the 10-year safe service life, and the home appliance market has entered the stage of renewed consumption." Member Zhang Jun said at a press conference on March 30, 2021.

In fact, all home appliances have a certain period of use.

"Take a TV screen as an example, the life of the LCD screen can reach 60,000 hours, the life of the plasma screen is about 40,000 hours, and the life of the traditional CRT TV picture tube is generally about 20,000 hours. The safe service life of the TV is 8 Years to 10 years. However, if the image of the TV is unclear and the picture is shaking, it means that the relevant components in the TV have been aging, and if it is forced to be used at this time, it may be dangerous." Engineer Xu Sheng (pseudonym) mentioned to reporters.

Liang Zhenpeng, an analyst in the home appliance industry, mentioned: "If the average lifespan of home appliances is estimated to be 8 to 10 years, the old home appliances to be scrapped every year in China will form a market size of at least tens of billions of yuan, which is a very huge market."

Zhang Yanbin, a senior observer in the home appliance industry, said bluntly: "It is an indisputable fact that there are more than 100 million home appliances in our country with a safety period of more than 10 years. This part of the home appliances with overdue service is mainly the major home appliances popularized at the beginning of this century, that is, color TVs. , refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners, as well as some kitchen appliances, which are often referred to as traditional home appliances. Among them, color TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines were popularized earlier, and now many families have been updated for several generations, by no means just Issues entering the update period."

"Stuck" in the last mile

At present, my country's waste home appliance recycling market is still dominated by "guerrillas", and some waste home appliances have been dismantled or refurbished irregularly and entered the second-hand market.

Master He, a self-employed individual engaged in the home appliance business, told reporters: "If the LCD TV can still be turned on, it will only be used for a long time, and the price can be between 100 yuan and 300 yuan. If the screen is broken, you subsidize others 10 yuan, and others will not. Willing to come and recycle.”

Master He said: "First-hand electrical appliances are relatively cheap now, and second-hand electrical appliances are difficult to sell." The reporter noticed that in order to attract customers and improve services, Master He's business scope includes installation, cleaning, maintenance and recycling of home appliances. The needs of customers can be tapped in no time.

Master Xie, who is engaged in waste recycling, said: "The screen of the color TV is broken, so it is not worth much. The only way is to disassemble the color TV, get out the copper, iron, aluminum and other metal components inside, and sell it as scrap copper and rotten iron. "

It should be noted that while many self-employed households promote the development of the home appliance recycling industry, problems are also exposed, such as whether there are safety hazards behind the refurbishment of second-hand home appliances, and whether there are new environmental problems behind the home appliances dismantled by individuals.

Taking color TVs as an example, AVC (AVC) estimates that in 2021, the retail volume of China's household color TV sets will be 38.35 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 13.8%; the retail sales volume will be 129.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. Among them, the profit of the color TV industry in 2021 is as low as 1.8%.

"The panel profit is very low, and now the price is exchanged for quantity. The production line will have a difference in 3 to 5 years, that is to say, in 10 years, only small workshops may produce the current screens, and the recycled color TV screens will only be Chips can be reused." Xu Sheng told reporters.

Zhang Yanbin pointed out: "Currently, the profit of color TV products is low. On the one hand, the industry is mature, with excess capacity, and there is no new demand to alleviate the pressure of competition. In order to survive, manufacturers must use price to win the market; on the other hand, we see that the market The average price is going up, which is a paradox with the low price and no profit. In fact, the price increase is not profitable because the price increase of raw materials is larger than the price increase of end products, although the market price has risen, But the increase in cost is even greater.”

In addition, Liang Zhenpeng believes that the behavioral habits of consumers are also a major factor. "Actually, consumers have not formed the consumption habit of recycling home appliances through retail channels. For example, is there a trick behind the depreciation and replacement of old home appliances? There are many manufacturers who promote new products under the guise of replacing old home appliances with new ones. So a lot of consumption People tend to sell old appliances as scrap.”

The reporter noticed that in terms of the input-output ratio of the household appliance recycling industry itself, the business of recycling old household appliances is still operating at a low profit.

Zhang Yanbin pointed out: "As for the recycling and dismantling of household appliances, it was originally a social welfare project in a sense. Small enterprises can make money by recycling and dismantling them, but the environmental pollution is very large. The government does not advocate individuals or incompetent enterprises to do it. Recycling business. But it is difficult to guarantee profits if it is handed over to large enterprises, because it needs to take into account environmental protection, green, etc., the investment is very large, and if the benefits are not good, no enterprises are willing to invest.”

Liang Zhenpeng added: "In the process of recycling and dismantling used home appliances, there are some informal recycling and dismantling enterprises of used home appliances. They will discard some waste materials as garbage or bury them on the spot without any treatment. It has caused serious pollution. And formal recycling and dismantling enterprises often need to face more costs, such as labor costs, plant, land costs, and environmental protection costs. The more legal it is, the more difficult it is to operate.”

Multi-party efforts to promote

In recent years, relevant state departments have made great efforts to improve the recycling and disposal system of waste household appliances.

In fact, my country is the world's largest producer, consumer and trader of home appliances, as well as a major producer of waste home appliances. Improving the recycling and processing system of used home appliances to promote the renewal and consumption of home appliances plays an important role and practical significance in promoting industrial optimization and upgrading, expanding domestic market demand, and helping to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

In May 2020, seven ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Implementation Plan on Improving the Recycling and Disposal System of Used Home Appliances to Promote the Renewal and Consumption of Home Appliances".

On August 4, 2021, according to the "Notice on Encouraging Home Appliance Manufacturers to Carry out Recycling Target Responsibility System Actions" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, home appliance manufacturers are encouraged to recycle used home appliances, and rely on the product sales and maintenance service network to build a reverse recycling system for used home appliances. Promote home appliance renewal consumption. By 2023, a batch of replicable and scalable recycling processing models and empirical practices will be formed.

The notice clarifies the four categories of recycling: televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. Encourage production enterprises to use their own sales channels and after-sales service networks to carry out reverse recycling of used home appliances, continuously improve the recycling function of the sales service system, strengthen cooperation with large regional recycling companies and qualified dismantling companies, and build targeted waste and used home appliances based on updated information. Home appliance recycling service network.

On January 13, 2022, in order to better promote home appliance manufacturers to carry out recycling target responsibility system actions, the relevant meeting of the National Development and Reform Commission conducted in-depth discussions on strengthening the construction of reverse recycling logistics, optimizing recycling channels, and innovating the old-for-new home appliance model.

Under the guidance of the policy wind vane, a group of well-known domestic home appliance companies responded positively and did a lot of work on the circular development model of home appliances. Gree and other home appliance manufacturers have made arrangements in the field of home appliance recycling.

The reporter learned from Gree that Gree's online "Gree Dong Mingzhu Store" and major offline stores have trade-in discounts for home appliances. For recycled old home appliances, Gree also has a relatively mature set of "green design-green" The circular development model of "manufacturing-green recycling" ensures the green and efficient operation of the entire industrial chain. Since 2012, Gree has made efforts in the recycling of renewable resources. It has successively established five environmental protection treatment bases for renewable resources in Changsha, Wuhu, Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang and Tianjin, and established a wholly-owned subsidiary - Zhuhai Gree Green Renewable Resources Co., Ltd. Recycling and processing business of waste electrical and electronic products, scrapped automobiles, and industrial solid waste.