Reporter of this magazine / Guo Feiyue
Recently, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which proposes to promote the trade-in of equipment and consumer goods, implement recycling and recycling actions, and promote the construction of a "replacement + recycling" logistics system.
The state encourages the trade-in of the old for the new, bringing a huge consumer market, encouraging consumers to iterate on old consumer goods, and buy new consumer goods that are more environmentally friendly, energy-saving, and intelligent, which can promote consumption upgrading and expand domestic demand. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the number of major categories of household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners exceeds 3 billion units, and the replacement of automobiles and household appliances can also create a trillion-scale market space. The waste products eliminated by consumers need to be dismantled to extract valuable materials through the recycling system, or flow into the second-hand market to exert surplus value, which brings new opportunities for improving the recycling logistics system.
On March 30, Professor Hao Hao, director of the Shanghai Reverse Logistics and Supply Chain Collaborative Innovation Center, said in an interview with the reporter of China Logistics and Procurement magazine that the fourth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission emphasized the need to promote large-scale recycling, which echoes the essential connotation of reverse logistics. Based on the important background of the dual carbon strategy and the construction of ecological civilization, reverse logistics, which is praised by experts as the "fifth source of profit", has become one of the hot spots of commercial investment and research in recent years.
(The picture comes from the Internet)
Government guidance, corporate action
In fact, before the release of the "plan", on February 23, the fourth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission proposed to encourage and guide a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in, and the implementation of recycling and recycling actions. Half a month after the introduction of the plan, on March 28, the State Council held a video conference to promote large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in, and Premier Li Qiang stressed at the meeting that it is necessary to accelerate the development of the "replacement + recycling" logistics system and new model.
On the morning of April 2, Zheng Shajie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, presided over the first symposium on large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods, and discussed and exchanged views with the heads of six private enterprises such as Jingdong Group, Midea Group, Haier Group, Gree Electric Appliances, Yadea Technology, and GEM.
Hao Hao said, "Affected by the top-level design of national policies, the market demand for recycling logistics system is becoming more and more vigorous. "With the country's emphasis on the recycling logistics system, many companies choose to cooperate with dismantling and recycling companies to promote the recycling of a large number of waste products.
A few days ago, GEM, a circular economy company committed to waste dismantling and recycling, reached a cooperation with JD.com to jointly build a digital recycling and consumer goods trade-in platform. The two parties will make full use of JD.com's platform, logistics system and GEM's resource treatment technology and qualifications to cooperate in waste household appliances and electronic waste recycling. Hao Hao believes that the cooperation between GEM and JD.com belongs to the joint operation model in reverse logistics operation, which is conducive to the two parties to give full play to their respective professional advantages, share costs, and jointly build a "replacement + recycling" logistics system.
China Re Resources and Environment Co., Ltd. also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Cainiao Group to jointly build a green supply chain recycling system for waste household appliances, such as environmental protection disposal of waste household appliances, logistics supply chain of renewable resources, traceability management of renewable resources, carbon emission reduction path, large-scale logistics and transportation services, green logistics park construction, and smart logistics construction.
The rookie's long-term layout in sending new and old home appliances has also laid the foundation for it to build a "replacement + recycling" logistics system. The relevant person in charge of the rookie said that the rookie has mainly formed two business forms of "delivery and installation" and "pick-up and delivery" in the process of sending and installing household appliances and furniture, with an average daily scale of 2,000 orders and nearly 1 million annual service consumers.
Cainiao research found that the theoretical scrapping of household appliances in the country is nearly 200 million units, and 80 million units have flowed into the regular dismantling plant, and most of the old machines have not been scrapped through the formal dismantling plant, which may flow into the second-hand market to bury potential safety hazards for the lives and property of the people. There are problems in urban market consumption, such as the inability to find home appliance and furniture recyclers, the inability to dispose of old home appliances and furniture, and the unsafe performance and unstable experience of home appliance and furniture recyclers found.
Through training and other means, Cainiao realizes that the terminal delivery staff has the ability to dismantle the old machine in the consumer's home, and standardizes the behavior of the delivery staff in the consumer's home to protect the rights and interests of consumers. Cainiao realizes the management of the collection station through self-operation, conducts secondary quality inspection of the machine, and completes the basic information of the old machine. By cooperating with the regular dismantling plant, we ensure that the recovered old machines go to the regular dismantling plant. The person in charge further said that relying on its own positive network, Cainiao will vigorously support the "replacement + recycling" logistics system and new model called for by the state.
In addition, Ander Zhilian cooperated with Tsingtao Brewery to jointly build a recycling point in a co-distribution center to unify centralized bottle return and centralized bottle return guarantee, promote the recycling of resources, and improve the efficiency of the value chain. At the same time, empty bottles can be returned in large quantities, which is conducive to the centralized manpower inventory of the factory. The relevant person in charge of Ander Zhilian said that the integrated supply chain service of "one inventory (one less jump)" + "new growth" of Ander Zhilian can provide convenient services for brands and build more intelligent, efficient and flexible logistics services, so as to realize the recycling of resources. The construction of a "replacement + recycling" logistics system can improve the utilization rate of resources, thereby allowing enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and promote energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Improving the "replacement + recycling" logistics system requires many efforts
As mentioned above, many companies have previously built their own recycling logistics systems or cooperated with them. This provides basic support for "accelerating the development of the 'replacement + recycling' logistics system and new model". Next, how to "accelerate" and innovate development has become the focus.
In Hao Hao's view, to build a "new + recycling" logistics system, first of all, we must improve recycling logistics channels. Government departments should intensify efforts to ban recycling stations and recycling companies without qualifications, technology, and equipment, and standardize the transformation of community recycling sites, sorting centers, recycling companies, and treatment enterprises. In January this year, the Ministry of Commerce and other 9 departments jointly issued the "Notice on Improving the Recycling System of Renewable Resources such as Waste Household Appliances and Furniture". It is mentioned that by 2025, a number of typical cities with a recycling system of renewable resources such as waste household appliances and furniture will be built nationwide, a number of recycling leading enterprises will be cultivated, a number of typical experience models will be promoted, and a number of policies, regulations and standards will be formed, and the national recycling of waste household appliances and furniture will increase by more than 15% compared with 2023, and the standardized recycling level of waste household appliances and furniture will be significantly improved.
Second, we should intensify publicity and education to raise the public's awareness of environmental protection and resource conservation. Hao Hao said that building a perfect recycling logistics system requires the joint efforts and support of the whole society. The government should publicize the knowledge of resource conservation, comprehensive utilization of resources and environmental protection through the media, so that consumers can establish new values and awareness of environmental protection responsibility, consciously regulate their own behavior in accordance with environmental protection requirements, legally hand over waste electrical and electronic products to qualified recycling sites or recycling companies, and dispose of waste electrical and electronic products in a formal way.
Thirdly, improve the laws and regulations related to the recycling and logistics of waste materials. It is necessary to further improve the extended responsibility system of producers, strengthen the research and formulation of technical regulations and standards related to the prevention and control of waste materials, formulate environmental protection technical specifications for the dismantling, reuse and disposal of waste products, and formulate product ecological design standards, reuse product standards, and product recycling labeling standards. Implement a license system and supervision mechanism for waste materials treatment enterprises, establish recycling pilot and demonstration enterprises, and explore and promote advanced and scientific operation models.
Finally, a digital and intelligent recycling logistics system should be built. Hao Hao explained that there are many types of waste materials, and the location, time and quantity of waste materials are scattered and difficult to determine, involving many consumers, units and enterprises. Therefore, according to the characteristics of waste materials recycling logistics, an efficient recycling logistics digital system should be built, and information sharing should be carried out at each node of recycling logistics, so that sellers, manufacturers, recycling sites, recyclers and recycling enterprises can timely grasp the recycling logistics information of waste electrical and electronic products, grasp the dynamics of recycling logistics, and make treatment decisions in a timely manner, so as to improve the efficiency of recycling logistics processing operations, reduce recycling and treatment costs, and improve the recycling logistics network.
The use of the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and other technologies to build a digital and intelligent platform for network recycling should become a major focus of innovation in the "replacement + recycling" logistics system. The multi-terminal system built by Cainiao can meet the needs of consumers to place orders in different APPs and small programs, as well as the association of forward orders and reverse orders, so as to realize the integration of pick-up and delivery, and at the same time build a full-link digital management capability to realize the full-link digital management of household appliance recycling. The relevant person in charge of the rookie said that when the rookie recycles waste household appliances, when the consumer places an order, the rookie will make an appointment with the consumer and go to the consumer's home to fulfill the contract according to the appointment date. Cainiao's self-operated collection station conducts quality inspection management for each old machine, and identifies the corresponding brand, category and specification. After the waste household appliances reach a certain scale, they will be sent to the dismantling plant with national certification and dismantling qualification. Full-link traceability management to achieve formal green dismantling.
On March 14, at the 2024 China Home Appliance and Consumer Electronics Expo, Haier Smart Home Recycling Industry officially launched the industry's first digital platform for recycling supply chain, which can realize the transparency and traceability of the whole process of home appliance recycling, dismantling and regeneration, and help home appliances efficiently trade in and recycle. (This article was published in the cover feature of China Logistics & Purchasing Magazine Issue 8, 2024)
