At present, the number of household appliances in China has exceeded 2.1 billion, and the elimination rate has increased by 20%. It is expected that the scrap volume will exceed 200 million in 2022. Under the guidance of the national “double carbon” goal, the industrialization of China’s waste household appliance recycling industry is ushering in a new round of investment boom.
Xiaochen, who lives in Guangzhou, recently changed a disinfection cabinet. The old machine was not repaired well and was too heavy. He was directly pulled away by the maintenance master and then sold to the waste recycling personnel in the form of scrap iron. There may be more formal recycling channels for waste household appliances in the future.
On March 28, Midea Group Co.Ltd(000333) ( Midea Group Co.Ltd(000333) . SZ) launched the recycling of waste household appliances and joined the “green recycling responsibility list” of household appliance manufacturers. During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress this year, Zhou Yunjie, chairman of the board of directors of Haier Group, also revealed that the phase I project of Haier’s first “lighthouse factory” for dismantling waste household appliances will be put into operation in July this year, and Haier is improving the recycling system of waste household appliances.
Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances Inc.Of Zhuhai(000651) ( Gree Electric Appliances Inc.Of Zhuhai(000651) . SZ), called for the establishment of mandatory standards for the safe service life of household appliances at the national two sessions this year and continued to promote the construction of the recycling and treatment system of waste household appliances. Gree has built a number of resource reuse bases.
Obviously, under the guidance of the national “double carbon” goal, the industrialization of China’s waste household appliance recycling industry is ushering in a new round of investment boom.
expanding domestic demand and reducing carbon emissions ”
According to the statistics of the national development and Reform Commission, at present, the number of household appliances in China has exceeded 2.1 billion, and the elimination rate has increased by 20%. It is expected that the scrap volume will exceed 200 million in 2022. The vast majority of these are formed after the consumption stimulus activities such as “replacing old household appliances with new ones” and “sending household appliances to the countryside” carried out from 2009 to 2013. According to the service life of household appliances for about 8 ~ 10 years, these household appliances are or will enter the centralized scrapping and upgrading period.
“Most of the waste household appliances are taken away by small vendors, and it is difficult to get formal environmental protection treatment. They either enter the second-hand market after renovation, or are disassembled irregularly, which will not only bring great potential safety hazards to consumers, but also cause a waste of resources.” Pan Yonggang, vice president and Secretary General of China Renewable Resources Recycling Association, said that toxic and harmful substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium contained in household appliances are more likely to pose a huge threat to the environment and human health.
In 2020, the national development and Reform Commission and other seven ministries and commissions jointly issued the implementation plan on improving the recycling and treatment system of waste household appliances and promoting the renewal and consumption of household appliances. This has received a positive response from leading household appliance enterprises, which are exploring a new model of green recycling.
In the “2022 Midea green recycling action”, Midea provides green recycling and renewal subsidy services for air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and televisions, which can be disassembled, delivered and installed simultaneously; Using online platforms, 120000 offline stores and 160000 service engineers, the recycling network will cover 2847 districts and counties across the country; It also cooperates with green dismantling enterprises to open up the links of recycling, treatment and reuse, promote the exchange of old household appliances for new ones, and promote the “internal circulation” of household appliance consumption and energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Users can put forward the demand for recycling the old machine online. After the evaluation of the old machine by the digital console, they will be given corresponding deduction to reduce the cost of purchasing the new machine. After users purchase new products, the staff will come to the door to “send the new and pull the old”. After sorting, the old machine is sent to the green disassembly enterprise to realize the reuse of resources. Each old machine generates a unique bar code, which can be traced in the whole process from engineer’s door-to-door, logistics, transportation, storage, disassembly, scrapping and other links. At the same time, based on blockchain technology, the user and product data can not be tampered with.
Haier’s recycling network also integrates 32000 offline stores, more than 100000 service soldiers and more than 100 logistics distribution centers, covering more than 2800 counties and cities across the country, forming a complete system covering recycling, transportation, sorting and other links. Haier also uses identification analysis technology to give each machine an old machine code, so as to ensure the safe, efficient and compliant treatment of waste household appliances.
building a green industrial chain still needs efforts
After the country put forward the “double carbon” goal in 2020, it has triggered a new round of development upsurge of waste household appliances recycling and resource reuse. Zhou Yunjie believes that at present, the whole chain digital system of “recycling, processing and reuse” in the household appliance industry has not been opened up, and there are information breakpoints between various links, which can not realize the data sharing, comprehensive supervision and traceability of the whole industry. At the same time, there are also a lot of problems in recycling, disassembly and reuse.
At the recycling end, recycling enterprises cannot obtain the recovered input invoice from individuals, and the input cost is still difficult to confirm. Although the value-added tax reduction policy has been issued, the enterprise income tax has not been issued a specific policy; At the dismantling end, dismantling enterprises are under great pressure and need to rely on state subsidies, but it is difficult to apply for the list of state fund subsidies; At the reuse end, China lacks the use standard of recycled materials, the utilization rate of recycled materials is low, and it is easy to cause secondary pollution. Zhou Yunjie said that these problems have seriously hindered the development of the circular economy industry.
To this end, Haier invested 500 million yuan in Qingdao Laixi to build a “lighthouse factory” in China’s disassembly industry. The foundation was laid in May 2021. It is expected that the first phase of the project will be put into operation in July 2022. After it is put into operation, 2 million waste household appliances can be disassembled every year. In the future, its business will expand from the disassembly and utilization of waste household appliances to the utilization of renewable resources such as component remanufacturing, scrapped cars and precious metal refining.
Next, Haier will cooperate with China Household Appliances Research Institute, China Institute of standardization and other institutions to build a recycling materials research institute and a National Laboratory for recycling materials around carbon detection, recycling and deep processing of precious metals, and material analysis technology. In addition, Haier will build a national recycling industry big data platform with the solid waste and chemical management technology center of the Ministry of ecology and environment, so that recycling, dismantling and recycled material R & D enterprises can be put on the platform, get through the industrial chain data and promote win-win results in the industry.
Midea is also increasing investment in the green industrial chain. On February 16 this year, Midea Group Co.Ltd(000333) issued 450 million US dollars of five-year unsecured green bonds to raise funds to implement projects related to green strategy. Midea released its green strategy in October 2021, hoping to “achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutralization by 2060”, and build a whole process green industrial chain around “green design, green procurement, green manufacturing, green logistics, green recycling and green service”. Green recycling action is an important part of landing.
Gree, another leading white power enterprise, is also making efforts. According to the annual report of Gree Electric Appliances Inc.Of Zhuhai(000651) 2020, Gree has established six renewable resource bases in Zhuhai, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang, Wuhu and Tianjin since 2010. At present, Gree has the qualification capacity of dismantling more than 13 million waste household appliances, 94000 vehicles, 180000 tons of recycled plastic materials and 60000 tons of waste circuit board. In 2020, 7 million sets of waste household appliances will be recycled. From the data comparison, its waste dismantling plant is “not full”.
Dong Mingzhu said that at present, there are no mandatory legal provisions on the service life of air conditioners, washing machines and other household appliances; For the service life of air conditioning, the group standards of different associations are different; For other household appliances, the recommended national standard only stipulates the general requirements, and the specific safe service life standard has not been issued. She called for the establishment of mandatory standards for the service life of household appliances as soon as possible, which is beneficial to the elimination and renewal of old products, consumers, enterprises, expanding domestic demand and realizing the “double carbon” goal.
Guo Meide, President of AVC, told China business news that after more than 30 years of development, China’s home appliance market reached a peak of 845.8 billion yuan in 2018, and it has been difficult to break through the 800 billion yuan mark since 2019. In 2021, the retail sales of China’s home appliance market increased by 3.6% to 760.3 billion yuan, and the market did not meet expectations in the first quarter of 2022. Trade in is an important driving force for growth. Promoting the recycling of waste household appliances is a strategy for leading household appliance enterprises to tap the stock market and help the realization of the national “double carbon” goal. “To exchange the old for the new, we must be driven by innovation and stimulate the needs of consumers with differentiated innovative products, such as dishwashers, floor washers, etc.”
