How to Break Down the "Last Mile" of Home Appliance Recycling? Three Giants Give Their Answers

【Fusion Blue Technology】The deepening implementation of the home appliance replacement policy also suggests that China is entering a peak period for home appliance disposal. In 2024, China's discarded electrical and electronic products recycling volume broke through 220 million units, with a year-on-year growth rate of 15.8%, and the total value reached 134 billion yuan, setting a new record.

Despite the impressive numbers, the actual situation has revealed deeper problems in China's home appliance recycling system. The system is scattered, illegal private dismantling and handling are chaotic, and the effectiveness is poor, not only posing environmental and safety risks but also causing massive waste of resources.

The question of how to handle discarded home appliances has become a key topic for China's green transformation. China urgently needs to build a standardized, scaled, and closed-loop green recycling processing network.

Emulating Japan - Standardized Recycling under Legal Regulations

Japan is one of the countries that has been most active in establishing legal regulations for home appliance recycling. The core framework is the "Home Appliance Recycling Act" implemented in 2001, which clearly defines the responsibilities of producers, sellers, and consumers in terms of home appliance recycling.

Through legislation, execution, and supervision, Japan has achieved standardized, institutionalized, and market-oriented recycling processes, forming a green closed-loop system. Terminal consumers are required to pay fees when disposing of large household appliances, and if they privately dispose of them, they will face huge fines.

This experience is worthy of China's in-depth emulation.

Chinese Solutions - Synergy-driven Exploration

China is currently at a critical window period for home appliance green transformation. As the world's largest home appliance manufacturer, China not only needs high-quality production but also high-level recycling. In this green revolution triggered by "old-for-new" policies, leading enterprises are showcasing their leadership in the industry.

Differing from Japan's mature legal enforcement model, China is still at the starting stage of building a standardized, scaled, and closed-loop home appliance recycling system.

Haier Smart Home has built a comprehensive green loop system. Starting with home appliance recycling, it extends to disassembly, reuse, and recycling fields through intelligentized and digitalized processes, becoming the first in the industry to truly establish and connect all stages of the life cycle of household appliances from collection, transportation, disassembly, and use.

Through the "Five Network Integration" mode, Haier Smart Home has built a dense recycling network covering over 2,800 counties nationwide and established the first standardized home appliance recycling sorting center in Qingdao, implementing full-process transparency and visualization with the "One Machine One Code" system. At the same time, its recyclable materials research and development team has developed high-purity (99.9%) and high-performance recycled materials for applications in cosmetics, automotive, and other fields, promoting resource utilization at a higher value.

Haier Group has established a "User-Node-Center-Factory" visualized recycling information management system, with 40 node centers nationwide responsible for downstream reverse logistics network management, capable of meeting over 200 sub-categories and 11 categories of recycling demands, achieving cross-category green recycling.

Greaves Electric has built an "Old-for-New Integrated Service System", establishing a tracking-based reverse logistics recycling network covering 95% of the country's areas, cooperating with JD.com, Taobao, and other e-commerce platforms, through multiple modes such as old-for-new, "Internet + Recycling" and traditional channels to recycle discarded household appliances.

As Europe's green wall rises and China's "Environmental Protection Law" takes effect, Chinese enterprises' technological reserves and innovative models will become the key strategic resources for participating in global recycling competition. When an old appliance is reborn on automated production lines, behind it lies not only metal and plastic transformation but also a declaration of industry to the nation's green transition.