“White Paper on Current Situation and Trend of WEEE Recycling Industry in China” Press Conference was hold in Beijing

　　On May 30, 2012, the “White Paper on Current Situation and Trend of WEEE Recycling Industry in China” Press Conference was hold by China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute in ACFTU Hotel-Beijing. The conference attracted more than 60 people from government departments, industry associations, WEEE dismantling and processing enterprises, electrical and electronic products manufacturing enterprises, media and other participants.

　　During the conference, the officers from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology affirmed the work done by the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute (CHEARI) in the field of waste electrical and electronic product recycling, and hope CHEARI would continue to further research on the industry in China and abroad in the future, and become an effective tool and method to understand the development of the industry for the governments, industry associations, and enterprises.

　　Director Hui Tian from the Household Appliance Recycling Technology Center of CHEARI introduced the main content of this report. This White Paper was finished based on the “White Paper 2010”, and combined with the analysis of the data and information collected from site visit of the processing enterprises, enterprise interviews, questionnaire surveys and the academic literatures around the world. The White Paper 2011 has two parts: the industry report and the enterprises dictionary. The industry report related to 17 chapters in 5 sections, which are the regulations and policies of WEEE among the world, the theoretical estimation of the WEEE quantity, research on the industry all over the world, research on the technologies of treatment and recovery, and the trend and development of the industry. The enterprise dictionary collected all the enterprises authorized by the Household appliances trade-in policy, or in the E-waste Pollution Prevention Enterprise Dictionary, or received the certification of WEEE treatment. In addition, the enterprise dictionary contained introduction of outstanding individuals and enterprises, which provided a platform for presentation and communication.

　　Director Tian pointed out that thanks to promotion from the legislation and policy, the WEEE recycling industry developed rapidly in 2011. There are increasing in both the quantity and the scale of the enterprises. A number of powerful enterprises, including listed enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, are contributing on the construction of the WEEE recycling system in China. And the industry of WEEE recycling is transforming from the private workshop style into standardization, large scale and industrialization.

　　According to the report, there were 1125 enterprises, including manufactures, retailers, traditional recyclers and processors, authorized by the National Household Appliance Trade-in Policy up date to December 31, 2011. 30% the manufactures took part in the recovery positively, while only 5% of the processors recover WEEE. Promoted by the National Household Appliance Trade-in Policy, the WEEE recycling system with large scale and diverse pathways is performing.

　　Dating to December 2011, there were 105 processing enterprises authorized by the National Household Appliance Trade-in Policy, 84 enterprises listed in the WEEE dismantling and disposal enterprises dictionary, and 53 enterprises received the certification of WEEE processing (by May 20, 2012). Without the double counting, there were 140 WEEE recycler and processors in China.

　　In 2011, the WEEE processed were mainly televisions (84%), and others were washing machines (7.7%), refrigerators (4%), computers (PC and notebook) 3.7% and air conditioners (less than 0.5%).   

　　It is proved that the National Household Appliance Trade-in Policy accelerates the development of processing enterprises, while many processing enterprises achieved large scale processing, however, compared with the planed handling capacity; the actual operating rate is still quite low.

　　It is found that the processors receive over 95% of WEEE from the trade-in policy, and quite a small amount from bulk institutions, individual recyclers, self-built channels and other channels. They dependent on the policy in a great degree and very few rely on their own collection channels. This is also the reason why many enterprises got troubles when the trade-in policy ended.

　　At the conference, the enterprise representatives from the Grammy Shenzhen High-tech Co., Ltd., the weft Run High-tech Materials (Kunshan) Co., Ltd., Qingdao the Xintiandi ecological cycle Technology Co., Ltd. introduced their experiences.

　　In the end, the guests conducted a discussion on the topic of the industry. The guests participated were: President Fuzhong Liu, Senior Advisor of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, Mr. Zhipu Yu, the Senior Commissioner of the China Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Chamber of Commerce, Professor Dong Xiang from Tsinghua University, Professor Min Qi from Renmin University, Professor Youliang Zhang from CHEARI and Director Hui Tian from CHEARI.