Disposal of waste household appliances, new regulations, recycling and recycling industries

From January 1, 2011, the "Regulations on the Management of the Recycling of Waste Electrical Appliances and Electronic Products" will be formally implemented. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have recently released the "First Catalogue for the Handling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products", TV sets and refrigerators. Five kinds of products such as washing machines, room air conditioners, and microcomputers entered the first "catalogue" products.

According to the person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and microcomputers are five categories of home appliances that are relatively large in size. They have high recycling costs and are difficult to implement. They comprehensively consider resources, environment, and technology. Economic factors and other factors require policy support at the initial stage of start-up. Therefore, as the first batch of “Catalogue” products, they are included in the “Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Product Recycling Management Regulations” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”).

For the recycling of the above-mentioned 5 types of used appliances, TCL, Haier, Changhong, etc. have already established electric dismantling centers, indicating that leading enterprises in the industry have entered the recycling industrial chain. The relevant person in charge of the Changhong Gerun Renewable Resources Project said that after the project is fully put into production, it will reach an annual processing capacity of 2 million units of used appliances. At the same time, Obo Environmental Protection, which is controlled by TCL Group, has also started construction in Tianjin recently. It will be built as the largest dismantling base for used household appliances in China. The construction of the first phase of the project will reach 100,000 tons/year of electronic and electrical product processing capacity. Yuan Bing, vice president of TCL Group, said that TCL hopes to achieve the ecological cycle of the entire industrial chain through the green design of products, green manufacturing, and harmless recycling of waste electronic and electrical products.

Zhao Maojun, deputy director of Ovid Consulting, believes that the implementation of the "Regulations" and "First Catalogue" will inevitably promote changes in the industry. With the support of policies, enterprises that recycle waste and used household appliances to achieve scale recovery will receive “double harvest” in terms of social benefits and economic benefits. On the one hand, for companies such as TCL, Haier, and Changhong that have established electrical dismantling centers, the waste electrical and electronic product processing fund may become a new profit growth point while undertaking corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, the above-mentioned enterprises' active participation in the disposal of used household appliances can also help companies improve the product design process, improve the product's recyclable design capabilities, and enhance the product's overall competitiveness.

While optimistic about industrial policies, industry professionals also reminded the industry authorities to organize the implementation of the “Regulations on the Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Recycling”, and cautioned the home appliance companies from passing on this cost to consumers. Peng Yi, director of research and development at Zhongkang, believes that companies should minimize the proportion of consumers' commitments, and they should tap potentials from the company’s R&D, production, marketing, and other aspects to fundamentally improve the market competitiveness of the company.