"Electronic scrap" on the two sessions of China of the proposal, the recycling of waste materials to be improved-E-waste News-BCRC China

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"Electronic scrap" on the two sessions of China of the proposal, the recycling of waste materials to be improved

Time: 2023-01-18 15:55:25

Author: BCRC China

In the process of building a resource-saving society, making the best use of everything can not only save the earth's resources, but also reduce the harm to the environment to a large extent.

In this 2022 national two sessions(NPC & CPPCC) of the 600-word minimalist version of the government's work report, the focus of the environmental protection part of the work "to improve energy and water conservation, recycling of waste materials and other environmental protection industry support policies. With economic development and technological progress, electronic waste has become an important part of people's production and life waste.

During the two sessions, a number of NPC deputies put forward proposals on e-waste.

Lei Jun, vice president of China Civil Chamber of Commerce and founder of Xiaomi Technology, suggested strengthening the recycling of electronic waste. In his proposal, he suggested the development of electronic waste recycling medium and long-term development planning, and the development of personal electronic waste carbon credit pilot.

Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. mentioned in an interview that it is recommended to continuously promote the construction of recycling and treatment system for waste home appliances, and that a part of the waste home appliances currently enter the second-hand market through refurbishment, which brings safety hazards to consumers.

NPC deputies, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Soil Research Director Shen Renfang also mentioned from the current investigation report on the parked e-waste dismantling enterprises and their surrounding environmental pollution, there are environmental pollution problems that can not be ignored.

In China, electronic waste will even be sentenced if not handled properly. 2022 On March 1, the Supreme People's Court released 10 typical cases of solid waste pollution of the environment, including one case of pollution of the environment by burning electronic waste, the parties concerned by directly burning electronic waste to refine metal ingots containing copper, gold, silver and other metals. The Supreme People's Court said this method of direct incineration using no environmental protection measures has caused serious pollution to the air, water and soil.

The United Nations defines electrical and electronic waste as WEEE, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, in the E-Waste Monitor 2020.The increasing level of economic development has boosted the consumption of electronic products, but the amount of waste produced as a result cannot be ignored.

The UN report shows that the total amount of e-waste generated worldwide reached 53.6 million metric tons in 2019, an increase of 21% in five years, and it also predicts that global e-waste will reach 74.7 million metric tons by 2030. The reason for this is mainly due to the increasing consumption rate of electrical and electronic equipment, short life cycles and few repair options for the products.

Compared to the amount generated globally in 2019, only 17.4% of e-waste was collected for recycling that year. Of the remaining 82.6% of e-waste, some was landfilled or incinerated, some was refurbished and transferred from high-income to middle-income countries as second-hand products, and a significant amount of e-waste was illegally exported under the guise of scrap metal.

Such a low recycling rate makes the value of e-waste as an "urban mine" is seriously underestimated, because e-waste contains valuable metal substances, such as iron, copper and gold, if properly recycled, can be reused as metal materials. It is estimated that the value of raw materials in global e-waste generated in 2019 is about ＄57 billion.

New options for reducing e-waste

The use of recyclable materials is one of the options to reduce e-waste. In this spring launch of Apple's new products in March, several products used recyclable materials. For example, this release of the iPhone SE 3rd generation uses 100% recycled rare earth elements in the magnets of the touch engine and audio components, 100% recycled tungsten in the touch engine, and 100% recycled tin in the motherboard solder.

In addition, the way to reduce electronic waste is recycling. Lei Jun mentioned some domestic e-waste treatment data in this proposal. According to the "China Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization Industry White Paper 2020", the disposal volume of China's waste electrical and electronic products will be about 83 million units in 2020. At the same time, the current regulated recycling rate in China is less than 20%, while Europe has reached 42.5%.

The white paper shows that individual recycling still dominates the WEEE recycling industry in China. According to the latest research on WEEE processing enterprises conducted by the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute, 78% of the waste products processed by processing enterprises come from individual recyclers for TV sets and 75.4% for microcomputers.

At the processing end of waste products, there is an increasing concentration of the industry and increasingly obvious differentiation of enterprises, for example, the processing volume of the top 5 group processing enterprises in Q1 2020 (CRA, Gree, Green Cycle, TCL and Capital) accounted for 66.5%, and the difference between the largest processing enterprise and the smallest processing volume is more than 200 times.

Not only the recycling and disposal of e-waste, but in the current context of rapid iteration of digital products, the quality of many products is not particularly problematic after a short period of use and can be circulated in the secondary market.

In an interview with Interface News, Tian Mu, the brand manager of Everything New Life (Love Recycling), said that the idea of "recycling" in the second-hand 3C products market has become popular among users in recent years, and the market penetration rate has increased from low to high.

"In recent years, major manufacturers continue to launch new products, and with it, the frequency of users to replace the new is also increasing, there are many products from the hands of users are more than 90% new, some even within six months of the product, the color is maintained very well. And everything new life will be recycled products for detailed quality inspection before selling again, so product quality is guaranteed, the return rate is not high." Tian Mu said to Interface News.

Everbright Securities research report shows that China has now crossed into the third consumption era, the economic growth rate stabilized, consumption showed excessive, personal, the public from durable goods consumption to high-frequency, high-quality consumption, and this also brings market opportunities for second-hand transactions.

In July 2021, the Development and Reform Commission issued the "Fourteen Five" circular economy development plan, the plan said the development of circular economy is a major strategy for China's economic and social development, the construction of resource recycling industrial system and recycling system of waste materials is of great significance to promote the realization of double carbon and promote the construction of ecological civilization.

The plan proposes that by 2025, the main resource output rate will increase by about 20% compared to 2020, and the output of recycled non-ferrous metals will reach 20 million tons, of which the output of recycled copper, recycled aluminum and recycled lead will reach 4 million tons, 11.5 million tons and 2.9 million tons respectively, and the output value of resource recycling industry will reach 5 trillion yuan.