As the world's largest producer of home appliances and an important consumer, the mainland is currently in the peak period of home telegraph waste, according to the annual elimination rate of more than 20%, it is expected that there will be more than 200 million home telegraph waste in the mainland this year. With the increasing demand for the replacement of old home appliances, "old for new" sales have become the mainstream.
More than 200 million home appliances will be scrapped this year
The share of trade-in sales continues to increase
At a home appliance store in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Ms. Li is preparing to buy some new home appliances, she told reporters that her refrigerator, washing machine and other home appliances have been used for more than a decade, belonging to the overdue service, so the home appliance store "old for new" activities let her pay special attention.
According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the number of home appliances in the mainland has exceeded 2.1 billion units, and some household appliances are using purchased between 2009 and 2013 when they carried out consumption stimulus activities such as "home appliances for new" and "home appliances going to the countryside". According to the safe service life of major appliances of 8-12 years, this part of the home appliances is about to enter or has entered the phase-out period.
Nowadays, the mainland home appliance industry has changed from an incremental market to a stock market, and the demand for home appliances is mainly based on replacement. Driven by the concept of green consumption, a series of consumption subsidy policies have been introduced in various places to expand domestic demand and encourage the "old for new" of home appliances, so that the proportion of "old for new" consumption has increased year by year.
Home appliance recycling and dismantling enterprises are running at full capacity
However, it still faces the problem of cost inversion
Due to the fact that the benefits from the disposal of waste home appliances are not obvious. Therefore, at the peak of home and telegraph waste, it is difficult to earn money although the relevant enterprises engaged in recycling and dismantling are busy.
At 2 p.m., in a waste home appliance dismantling enterprise in Shantou, Guangdong Province, after the workers removed the refrigerator compressor, magnetic stripe, baffle, bulb and other accessories, the refrigerator was sent into the dismantling line by the conveyor belt for overall crushing, and the last thing that came out was plastic, metal and other different raw materials. There are a total of 8 dismantling lines like this, including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and air conditioners.
Mai Weiqiang, general manager of an environmental protection development co., LTD. in Shantou, Guangdong Province: The company's current dismantling volume is 6,000 to 8,000 units per day, which is basically a full load operation, but even so, it cannot meet the needs of the market. We plan to build a new dismantling base within two years, and the quality of dismantling funds will be expanded from 2.09 million units to 3 million units.
Even if the front is a busy scene, the person in charge of the enterprise is not happy, because the current status quo of the entire industry is that the dismantling cost of formal dismantling enterprises is higher than the income, and it still depends on the support of state fund subsidies. In 2012, the state issued the "Administrative Measures for the Collection and Use of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Disposal Funds", which adopts the principle of extended producer responsibility system and subsidizes regular dismantling and processing enterprises by levying treatment fees from home appliance manufacturers and importers. So far, a total of 5 batches of 109 processing enterprises have been included in the list of fund subsidy enterprises.
Mai Weiqiang, general manager of an environmental protection development co., LTD. in Shantou, Guangdong Province: A common problem in dismantling enterprises is that the cost of recycling is relatively high, which will lead to the dismantling of the sales of the dismantling enterprises to achieve upside down, taking air conditioning as an example, the recovery of a set of air conditioners is 470 yuan, and the sales achieved after dismantling are 420 yuan, where there will be 50 yuan upside down, so the state's subsidies for compliant dismantling enterprises are crucial.
It is understood that fund subsidies are the key to the profitability of waste home appliance dismantling enterprises. However, the collection standard of the "four machines and one brain" fund has always been 7 yuan to 13 yuan per unit in 2012, and the current fund subsidy for dismantling enterprises is 25 yuan to 100 yuan per unit, and the income and expenditure of the fund are seriously unbalanced. At the same time, there is a lag in the collection of fund subsidies, and the current fund subsidies are only issued until the first quarter of 2018, so although the company is profitable on the books, it has not obtained the corresponding cash flow.
At the same time, the fund subsidies were adjusted in 2016 and 2021, and the fund subsidies that enterprises can obtain are greatly reduced, such as crT TV subsidies above 14 inches and below 25 inches from 60 yuan / unit to 40 yuan / unit; air conditioning from 130 yuan / unit in 2016 to 100 yuan / unit, which also brings pressure to the development of related enterprises.
Zhang Heran, secretary general of the Electronic Product Recycling Branch of the China Material Recycling Association: Their front-end recycling is done in the form of advances, so the financial cost of funds is particularly high. The new fund subsidy standard, which was implemented since April 1 last year, has been reduced by about 30% compared with the adjustment in 2016, the most exceeding 30%, and the least being close to 30%. In this case, last year's bulk solid waste was at a high operating level, and the pressure on the front-end receipt of the enterprise was particularly high, not only did not reduce the front-end receiving price, but the current receiving price was higher than the price before the subsidy, and the profit of the recycling and dismantling enterprise was reduced by at least one-third.
Although the harm of private demolition of waste home appliances is large, it is difficult to prohibit
The reporter learned in the interview that although all aspects of the home appliance industry have initially formed a "old for new" business collaborative ecological model, there are still a large number of waste home appliances that are recycled and dismantled by non-standard recycling stations. What is the main reason for this? What is the harm of privately demolishing waste home appliances?
The reporter found in a random interview with some citizens in Shenzhen that many consumers do not understand the formal home appliance recycling channels, nor do they know the harm of informal recycling, and they often choose informal recycling channels with the psychology of "trying to save trouble".
The difference in the price difference between the recycling of formal channels and informal channels is also a reason why some waste home appliances cannot enter the formal channels. Taking a 1.5-horse hanging air conditioner as an example, the price on a recycling platform in Jingdong is 95 yuan, and it can often be sold for three or four hundred yuan through waste recycling.
According to the Global E-Waste Monitoring Report 2020, the actual collection and recycling rate of e-waste in mainland China is only 40%. However, in addition to raw materials such as copper, aluminum, steel and plastics in home appliances, refrigerants, blowing agents, picture tubes, fluorescent screens, mercury relays and other accessories will be widely used, and waste home appliances will be recycled and disposed of without standards, which will cause great harm to people and society.
Xu Churui, deputy general manager of an environmental protection development co., LTD. in Shantou, Guangdong: Taking waste air conditioners as an example, the waste air conditioners we are recycling now have the greatest harm to the environment is its refrigerant, which is Freon, which is a substance that can destroy the atmospheric ozone layer, and ordinary small workshops will not collect it and directly discharge it.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Notice on Organizing and Carrying Out the Responsibility System action of the recycling target of home appliance manufacturers in 2022", allowing traditional home appliance manufacturers to participate in more home appliance recycling links. Industry insiders believe that the implementation of the producer recycling target responsibility system will help to implement a new recycling system, reduce the possibility of illegal dismantling of the front end, and reduce environmental risks.
Source: CCTV news client