China Resource Recycling Group Co., Ltd. recently announced that the mobile phone safe recycling and disposal demonstration project has successfully completed the trial operation, and mobile phone safe recycling and disposal services have been launched in provincial capital cities across the country.

　　With the continuous increase in the penetration rate of smartphones in my country and the acceleration of the renewal speed, the number of used mobile phones has shown an explosive growth. Data from the China Circular Economy Association shows that my country has added more than 400 million new scrap mobile phones every year.

　　As a central enterprise, what impact will China Resources and Environmental Group participate in the recycling of used mobile phones, which is regarded as the "national team", have on the recycling of used mobile phones? How to "break through" the waste mobile phone recycling market?

　　The market for recycling of used mobile phones has increased its appeal

　　At the China Resources and Environmental Protection Group's mobile phone safety recycling and disposal base located in Guiyu Town, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, with the rapid rotation of electric screwdrivers and other tools, in just a few dozen seconds, the staff disassembled the camera, screen, battery and circuit board in the used mobile phone, and the circuit board will be placed on the conveyor belt and broken mechanically, and sent to the fire smelting workshop in batches for smelting.

　　The staff disassembled the flash memory components of the mobile phone and sent them to the crushing device. Xinhua News Agency (photo taken by Wang Enguang)
　　Mobile phones are rich in metals such as copper, gold, silver, nickel, tin, etc., as well as plastics, glass, etc. A large number of used mobile phones are recycled and reused, and have huge economic and ecological value. Industry insiders estimate that its market size is worth nearly 100 billion yuan. At present, many companies and individuals have been attracted to the market.

　　The reporter recently saw a customer bringing an old mobile phone for sale at a supermarket in a Binhai New Area in Tianjin. "On average, more than 10 customers sell mobile phones every day. This is the second time this gentleman has come to place an order." The staff of the recycling store introduced.

　　In addition to many street-side mobile phone sales and repair stores launching mobile phone recycling services, some online second-hand trading platforms also participate in mobile phone recycling.

　　It is understood that the current domestic market has formed second-hand mobile phone recycling platforms such as Zhuanzhuan, Xianyu, Aihui, Flash Recycling, and Tongchengbang. Taking Xianyu as an example, after the user enters the recycling page, he submits his mobile phone information, model, new and old levels, etc. to participate in the recycling. Xianyu business public relations Wang Dannan said that the cyclic order volume of Xianyu Mobile Digital increased by about 20% year-on-year in 2024.

　　Zhu Nengwu, professor at the School of Environment and Energy of South China University of Technology, said that a complete mobile phone recycling system is established, and it is expected that the resource recycling capacity of about 60,000 tons of metal, 80,000 tons of plastic, and 40,000 tons of glass can be achieved every year, which can provide important raw material guarantees for the green transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and high-quality development.

　　What bottlenecks are you facing?

　　Lightning (Guangdong) Environmental Protection Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. is an enterprise engaged in the recycling and disposal of all categories of urban waste. General Manager Wu Yifan said: "Consumers are generally worried about data leakage in old mobile phones. Even if the factory settings are restored, there is still a risk of restoring sensitive information through technical means."

　　Compared with traditional recycling of used mobile phones, paying more attention to data privacy and security is a major highlight of China Resources and Environmental Group's mobile phone recycling and disposal business.

　　Liao Huanle, head of the China Resources and Environmental Group mobile phone safety recycling and disposal project, introduced that the group has in-depth cooperation with China Post Express Logistics and has opened up a safe recycling and circulation path, and the entire process of mobile phone recycling, circulation, dismantling and crushing is visualized, monitored and traceable.

　　On April 11, China Resources and Environmental Protection Group in Shantou City, Guangdong Province safely recovered the mobile phone fragments that were broken by machinery in Guiyu disposal base. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Qiu Qingyi
　　During the interview, the reporter learned that the entry of the "national team" has indeed dispelled some consumers' concerns about the security of mobile phone information, but to fundamentally activate the used mobile phone recycling market, there are still some bottlenecks.

　　The most prominent thing is that there is a gap between the recycling prices of used mobile phones and the psychological expectations of many consumers, which affects consumers' enthusiasm for participating in recycling of used mobile phones.

　　"The mobile phone I bought for 5,000 or 6,000 yuan is now only a few hundred yuan in recycling. It is better to keep it as a 'slip machine' at home," said Li Fang, a consumer in Ningbo.

　　Liao Huanle analyzed that there is no standard for the sales price of used mobile phones in the market, and consumers' valuation expectations are high, and their willingness to dispose of used mobile phones is affected by multiple factors such as disposal model and recycling price.

　　At the same time, different companies have great differences in testing methods and pricing standards for used products. "In the old-for-new trade-in event, the recycling prices given by different merchants for the same mobile phone may be far different," said Wu Yifan.

　　In addition, the network system for recycling used mobile phones is not perfect. At present, there are many companies and individuals engaged in the recycling of used mobile phones across the country, but the coverage rate of offline outlets is still insufficient. Mobile phone recycling services in small and medium-sized cities are mainly street vendors and wandering vendors. The recycling scale is small, and the flow of mobile phones after recycling is scattered.

　　Wang Junfeng, director of the Research Center for Circular Economy and Low Carbon Development of Nankai University, said that my country's recycling and utilization of used mobile phones is still in its early stages, and a complete recycling, classification, transportation, processing and utilization network system has not yet been formed.

　　How to stimulate market potential

　　At present, the country's policy support for environmental protection industries, old-for-new products and other policies has been continuously increasing, creating a good policy environment for the development of the used mobile phone recycling market. Many companies have also seized policy opportunities to further tap the market potential of used mobile phone recycling.

　　Some second-hand trading platforms have expanded the number of offline recycling stores and established a "online + offline" recycling network. By placing commercial advertisements, cross-platform cross-border cooperation and other forms, they have increased business exposure and fully tapped market potential.

　　China Resources and Environmental Group stated that it has upgraded its business to the "Xincao Worry-free" mini program for the mobile phone safe recycling and disposal project. In addition to opening it to provincial capitals across the country, it has also opened a large number of used mobile phone recycling outlets to further integrate upstream and downstream resources, improve user access rate, improve recycling efficiency, and reduce recycling logistics costs.

　　To better stimulate the market potential of used mobile phone recycling, we need to further strengthen data security protection. If the recycling process of used mobile phones is not cleared professional, standardized and in-depth privacy data, there may be a risk of privacy leakage. Liao Huanle said that unified standards should be established to cover the entire process of mobile phone privacy removal software, privacy removal process, and post-privacy clearance certification as soon as possible.

　　Liao Huanle also suggested that the establishment of unified industry valuation standards should be promoted to reduce users' concerns about "price reduction", achieve price transparency, and improve users' willingness to recycle through value incentives; at the same time, through innovations such as "old for new", "green points", and "carbon points incentives", we will increase public participation and guide the public to participate in recycling.

　　Zhu Nengwu believes that the standard system of waste electronic products, including mobile phones, should be improved, key bottlenecks should be opened up, and a recycling system that can adapt to the market demand for resource recycling should be established, and a full-chain process management from waste to products should be formed.

　　Wu Yifan said that the recycling of used mobile phones is of great significance to promoting resource recycling, environmental protection, and green, low-carbon circular development. I believe that more and more capital and enterprises will enter this field, further stimulating the market potential of used electronic products recycling. ( Reporters: Yang Wen, Zhao Ziyu, Zhang Xuan)

[Editor in charge: Chen Tingyu]