It is difficult to solve the problem of capacity expansion and recycling

On february13,2015, the six ministries and commissions jointly issued the catalogue for disposal of waste electrical and electronic products (2014 version). The new catalogue will be implemented from March 1 this year. The catalogue for disposal of waste electrical and electronic products (the first batch) shall be repealed at the same time. Recently, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the catalogue, the national development and Reform Commission and relevant departments organized the drafting of the interpretation of the catalogue of waste electrical and electronic products (2014 version) (hereinafter referred to as the interpretation). Cuiyan, director of the industry development department of the China Materials Recycling Association and Secretary General of the strategic alliance for technological innovation in the resource forced recycling industry, told reporters that the release of the interpretation will better promote the development of the waste electrical and electronic processing industry.

New categories and detailed definitions are conducive to the accelerated development of the recycling industry

According to the reporter, on the basis of the first batch of catalogues (refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, color TV sets, computers), the new catalogue will expand the category to 14 categories, adding range hoods, electric water heaters, gas water heaters, printers, copiers, fax machines, monitors, microcomputers, mobile communication handheld machines and telephone stand-alone machines.

Hezaihua, senior researcher of CIC consultant, told Chinese reporters that the main significance of the release of the interpretation is twofold: on the one hand, it can effectively divide the waste electrical and electronic products, and explain the scope and types of products involved in the catalogue, which is helpful to better implement the catalogue; On the other hand, it can reasonably guide the recycling of waste electrical and electronic products, accelerate the improvement of industrial technology and overall efficiency, and prevent the impact of waste electrical appliances on environmental pollution and life. He also believes that for waste electronic product processing enterprises, this means that on the one hand, the electronic product processing business scope of electronic product processing enterprises is expanded, and the product recovery cost is increased; On the other hand, it also means that enterprises' access to state subsidies has increased.

As for the nine new products based on the original "four machines and one brain" (TV, refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine and computer), Cui Yan believes that it is of great operational significance for the waste electrical and electronic recycling industry. First, it makes recycling and dismantling enterprises easier to operate. "Because the description of the category of recycled products was not clear before, there was no special definition." Cui Yan, for example, as subsidies are involved, for example, there was no specific provision for refrigerator products at the beginning, and only 800 liters or less is required to enter the recycling directory, "Now, if the volume is less than 50 liters, it will not be included in the subsidy catalogue. The principles for formulating the catalogue were: (1) large social ownership and large waste; (2) serious environmental pollution and harm to human health; (3) high recovery costs and difficult treatment; (4) significant social benefits and policy support."

"At the beginning, the principle of making the catalogue was that there was a large amount of waste in the society. Refrigerators less than 50 liters did not meet this requirement, so they were excluded from the catalogue."

Secondly, for the production enterprises, it is of great significance to guide their future production design. "The definitions of various products in the interpretation are very clear, and they are all implemented in the producer link. The enterprise will carry out production design in accordance with the requirements within the scope and with subsidies."

Third, it is beneficial to the research of scientific research institutions. "The definition of each variety is relatively clear. In the future research process, we will not waste unnecessary energy to find data for small varieties of electrical appliances. We only need to analyze the varieties with large quantity and great impact, which will greatly improve the efficiency of research."

It will alleviate the "insufficient food" phenomenon of recycling enterprises

In recent years, with the increasing number of e-waste generated in industrial production and daily life, such as waste TV sets, waste refrigerators, waste washing machines, waste air conditioners, waste computers, waste mobile phones, etc., the recycling and disposal of e-waste has become an urgent social problem to be solved, and it is also a difficulty in environmental remediation. Although the State Council and the Ministry of environmental protection have issued relevant documents, the current situation of e-waste recycling and treatment in most regions of the country is worrying, and the recycling link is still dominated by individual small traders going through the streets to purchase. Subsequently, these e-waste will enter the scattered manual workshops and be disposed of in a simple way. Only some rare and precious metals will be recovered.

Data shows that many recycling companies are subsidized by the waste electrical and electronic products disposal Fund approved by the state, and have the ability to dispose 500000 sets of waste electrical and electronic products per year. However, due to the problems in the recycling process, there is a serious shortage of raw materials. "The increase of categories in the catalogue will effectively alleviate the current situation of enterprises' insufficient food." Cuiyan said that the annual apparent consumption of "four machines and one brain" in China is about 500million units, and the apparent consumption of nine new products is also 500million units. The annual theoretical waste of 14 products exceeds 400million units, equivalent to about 4million tons. The existing 109 treatment enterprises only dismantled the products in the catalogue, "However, in fact, their production capacity is much higher than the current disassembly volume, and many of their production capacity has not been effectively released. In addition, the disassembly process of the new 9 categories of products is basically similar to the current 'four machines and one brain' disassembly process. The expansion of the catalogue will be conducive to the release of the original production capacity."

Looking forward to building a standardized recycling network

According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, as of 2013, the annual waste of "four machines and one brain" in China had reached 100million, and 70million mobile phones had been eliminated. According to the data of the Ministry of industry and information technology, China's major electrical and electronic products are scrapped more than 200million units each year, weighing more than 5million tons, and has become the world's largest producer of discarded electrical and electronic products.

However, although there are 106 qualified enterprises engaged in the recycling of waste electrical and electronic products in China at present, in the face of a huge number of waste electrical and electronic products every year, the recycling of electrical and electronic products in China has been in a disorderly management state, which has not only brought a huge waste of resources, but also brought a lot of potential pollution hazards.

"The biggest problem faced by recycling enterprises now is that they do not have their own recycling network and channels, and do not know the source of goods." Cui Yan said. She said that the disassembly process of the newly added nine categories of recycled products is not much different from the previous "four machines and one brain", but there is also a serious homogenization of the disassembly process, and each disassembly process has not been used with high quality. "There are even some cases of non-standard disassembly and secondary pollution. Some enterprises just simply disassemble without back-end utilization."

On January 11, in order to implement the circular economy promotion law, explore the establishment of a producer responsibility extension system, and guide producers to perform relevant responsibilities, the first batch of pilot units for the extension of producer responsibility for electrical and electronic products were selected and announced in accordance with the requirements of the notice on organizing and carrying out pilot units for the extension of producer responsibility for electrical and electronic products issued by the Ministry of industry and information technology and other four ministries and commissions. In the view of insiders, the launch of this pilot project is conducive to regulating the current chaotic recycling market of electrical and electronic products.

In this regard, Cuiyan believes that the move is the hope of the Ministry of industry and information technology to promote the recycling of the back end through the front-end ecological design. "At present, the current laws and regulations do not stipulate what responsibility the manufacturer should bear, but simply pay the disposal fund for waste electrical and electronic products." She stressed that the Ministry of industry and information technology hoped that the pilot production enterprises would not only pay the fund, but also bear more responsibilities, "for example, through the sales channel, they could better recycle the waste electrical and electronic products. The back-end disassembly is not complicated, and recycling is the biggest problem that needs to be solved at present."