Strengthen recycling and promote the development of recycling economy

In the year of 2003, the tire retreading volume in China accounted for only 4% of the new tire production, while the EU renovation rate reached 18.8%. In addition, China still has a large number of waste household appliances and electronic products, waste non-ferrous metals, waste paper, waste plastics, and waste glass each year, and has not realized the efficient use and recycling of resources.

According to Yang Chunping, head of the Research Group on Circular Economy Development Strategy of the Macroeconomic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, in the process of economic globalization, the role of tariff barriers has been weakened, and non-tariff barriers including "green barriers" have become increasingly prominent. The requirements of the countries for the ecological standards of products are also increasing. Because people have a weak sense of environmental pollution and ecological awareness, China’s export products are often banned, which has seriously hampered the development of China’s export-oriented economy.

In recent years, in order to protect their national interests, some developed countries have set many technical standards that are easily accessible to them and that are difficult for developing countries to meet in order to meet their environmental protection requirements. Product development, development, production, packaging, transportation, use, recycling and other aspects must meet environmental protection requirements, such as the EU clearly required that 95% of the packaging must be able to recycle the material. In February last year, the European Union also promulgated the "Construction of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment" and "Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment." It is stipulated that from August 13, 2005, producers shall be responsible for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment; Since July 1, 2006, six types of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, and cadmium have been restricted in the more than 100 types of electronic and electrical equipment sold in the EU. For another example, with the increasing emphasis placed on the ecological environment and climate change by the international community, energy efficiency as the main purpose of energy efficiency standards and marking has become a new non-tariff barrier.

These non-tariff barriers have had an increasingly serious impact on China's development of foreign trade, especially its expansion of exports. At present, China has become one of the biggest victims of non-tariff barriers such as “green barriers”. For example, the scope of the two EU directives covers not only China's electronic and electrical equipment products, but also the Parts and components and raw materials industries, which basically cover all the mechanical and electrical products that China exports to the EU. In the face of increasingly severe non-tariff barriers, relevant experts pointed out that we must attach great importance to actively respond to, in particular, we must comprehensively promote clean production, vigorously develop a recycling economy, and gradually make our products meet international standards in resources, environmental protection and other aspects.

Therefore, only by developing a recycling economy, fundamentally improving the environment, forming a good production and consumption habits, and improving the ecological level of products, can we constantly improve the export competitiveness of products and timely seize the development opportunities brought by the accession to the WTO.

Remanufacturing: A Necessary Approach to Economic Recycling

Every year, China has to scrap 2 million cars and scrap 28 million old home appliances (including computers, TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, etc.). Xu Binshi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Tsinghua University, said that some people call these used mechanical and electrical products “urban mines.” This metaphor is appropriate because these wastes will become the second resource relative to natural resources.

According to academician Xu, there are three basic ways to recycle used mechanical and electrical products. That is, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling, from the industrial point of view, the United States called it 3R (Reuse, Remanufacture, Recycle).

Waste and used electromechanical products can be divided into four types of components after being decomposed and appraised. The first category is durable and reusable components. Since parts of electromechanical products cannot be designed for life expectancy, when a product is scrapped, parts of the parts are always intact. After passing inspection, this part can be qualified. Direct use, either as a spare part, can also enter the product remanufacturing production line to generate remanufactured products; the second category is remanufactured parts, and the remanufacturing project is based on the design and management of the whole life cycle of mechanical and electrical products as a guide to the use of waste The goal of achieving leap-forward performance improvement of products is to use high-quality, high-efficiency, energy-saving, material-saving, and environmental protection as criteria, and to use advanced technologies and industrialized production as a means to repair and reconstruct used mechanical and electrical products by a series of technical measures or engineering activities. General term. In short, remanufacturing is the industrialization of high-tech maintenance. The difference between remanufacturing and general repair is that the quality and performance after remanufacturing reach or exceed new products, the cost is only 50% of new products, energy saving is 60%, material saving is 70%, and can significantly improve environmental protection; the third category is currently unable to Repair or economically uneconomical, can become parts of raw materials through recycling. Return-recycling recycling also consumes energy and causes environmental pollution. It is only a measure that must be taken under the current technological and economic conditions. The fourth category is that those resources that cannot be recovered through recycling, remanufacturing and recycling processes can only be passed. Landfills and other measures for safe handling of components.
Research data shows that each year, the world’s only remanufacturing industry saves 14 million tons of materials, which is equivalent to the annual energy output of 8 medium-scale nuclear power plants. According to statistics, the annual output value of the remanufacturing industry in the United States in 2002 was 0.4% of GDP. China's GDP is expected to reach 4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020. If the level of U.S. remanufacturing in the United States in 2002 is taken as the target for China in 2020, the annual value of the remanufacturing industry will reach 16 billion U.S. dollars.

Academician Xu said that when the State refers to the “Guidance Opinion on Accelerating the Development of Circular Economy” when it talks about the main objective of developing circular economy, it puts forward the “recycling utilization rate of the four major recycled metals” indicators, which is necessary. However, this indicator alone is not comprehensive enough to enable electromechanical product manufacturers to assume responsibility for promoting the reuse and remanufacture of used electromechanical products. The common practice in developed countries is to establish a manufacturer's responsibility system. Manufacturers must be responsible for all aspects of the entire life cycle of mechanical and electrical products, including the resources for entering the end-of-life period. This will enable manufacturers to fully consider entering scrap when designing products. Period of resource issues.

In addition, if you consider the end of the product in the process of product design, this can increase the recycling rate, extend the life of the product, and achieve the best use of resources. 2/3 of the recovery of the end of the product is determined by the product design stage, so the principle of product remanufacturability should be considered in the product design stage, making the product material long life, easy to disassemble, and easy for secondary use and re manufacture.

Technical System: Internal Support for Circular Economy

Advanced science and technology are the core competitiveness of circular economy. Professor Jin Yong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that if there is no input for advanced technology, the economic and environmental goals pursued by the circular economy will be difficult to achieve fundamentally. The supporting technology system of the circular economy consists of five types: alternative technologies, reduction technologies, reuse technologies, resource technologies, and systematic technologies.

Academician Jin said that, for example, new cement production technology, the rapid development of China's economic construction has made the demand for cement high. In 2002, China produced 700 million to 800 million tons of cement, which accounted for 40% to 60% of the world's total production. However, the current structure of cement production is extremely unreasonable. The backward shaft kiln cement still accounts for 80% of the total output. The new dry process cement production only accounts for 11%. The resources and environment are costly and labor productivity is very low. The state must persist in eliminating the industrial policy of compressing the backward shaft kiln cement. At the same time, in terms of technology, it is necessary to further solve the problem of large-scale chemical energy and intelligentization of new dry process cement equipment, develop new technologies, new processes and new equipment for the application of inferior energy and industrial waste in cement production, and ensure cement products. Under the premise of quality, cement production will be developed towards energy conservation, waste disposal and environmental protection.

Remanufacturing takes advanced technologies and industrialized production as a means to repair and reconstruct used electrical and mechanical equipment, restore its performance and even acquire new performance, and extend the service life of equipment. The role of remanufacturing in saving energy, saving materials, reducing consumption, reducing pollution, and improving economic efficiency is enormous. Of the 8 industrial sectors involved in US remanufacturing in 1996, there were more than 73,000 specialized remanufacturing companies producing 46 major remanufactured products with annual sales exceeding US$53 billion (close to the annual sales of US steel industry in 1996). A total of 56 billion U.S. dollars) has become the main force of the U.S. economy. Among them, automotive remanufacturing is the largest remanufacturing field, with a total of 50,538 companies and annual sales of 36.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 68%. The research and development of remanufacturing technologies for used equipment and the development of the remanufacturing industry into a new industry are the necessary measures for China to develop a circular economy as a major equipment country.


At present, China has entered the peak of electrical appliances. Landfill and incineration not only pollute the environment but also waste resources. Efforts should be made to develop and popularize advanced equipment and processes for the recycling of e-waste resources. From e-waste that cannot be reused, low-cost, low-pollution, high-efficiency recycling of raw materials such as metals, plastics, and glass should be used for reproduction, and e-waste should be recycled. Develop a standardized modern industry.
Standard: External Guarantee of Circular Economy

Not long ago, the National Development and Reform Commission and the AQSIQ formulated and issued the "Administrative Measures for Energy Efficiency Labeling," which will come into effect on March 1 this year. This is a good beginning for the development of recycling economy. It is reported that the relevant departments will continue to intensify their efforts to formulate and improve laws and regulations and corresponding standards systems, and incorporate the development of circular economy into the legal system.

At present, China has promulgated laws and regulations such as the “Energy Conservation Law” and “Cleaner Production Promotion Law,” and has formulated a series of policies, standards, and management systems that promote energy conservation, material saving, water conservation, and comprehensive utilization of resources. However, on the whole, the construction of the legal system in the circular economy is still weak and cannot meet the requirements for the development of circular economy. Therefore, we must combine the national conditions of our country, learn from the experiences of developed countries, study and establish a sound circular economy regulatory system, and speed up the "Circular Economy Promotion Law" legislative process. We must quickly formulate special laws and regulations for the development of circular economy, including the "Regulations for Comprehensive Utilization of Resources", "Regulations on the Management of Used Tire Recycling," and "Administrative Measures on the Recycling and Utilization of Packaging Materials".

It is reported that China's Regulations on the Administration of the Recycling of Waste and Used Household Appliances and Electronic Products is currently being drafted. It proposes the establishment of a producer responsibility system and clarifies the responsibilities and obligations of producers, sellers, recycling and processing companies, users and consumers. . At the same time, it proposed to establish a special fund for the recycling of used home appliances and promote the recycling and recycling of used household appliances and electronic products.

Experts pointed out that we must speed up the development of the development of circular economy standards and related systems. The focus is on the energy efficiency standards for major energy-using equipment, the water quota standards for key water industries, the energy-saving design specifications for major energy-consuming industries, and the mandatory performance-effective labeling system and the reuse product labeling system.