Nation's domestic appliance manufacturers to accelerate recycling efforts

Experts said China's home appliance makers are expected to speed up the recycling of discarded products and launch more green and intelligent household appliances, in a bid to shore up and promote the upgrading of the whole industry, as the nation has rolled out a number of measures to boost consumption.

Incentives should be introduced to support consumers to exchange old home appliances and electronics for more green, energy-saving and intelligent alternatives, such as ultra-high-definition televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and smartphones, according to a guideline issued by the State Council.

Moreover, efforts should be made to encourage financial institutions to provide credit support for residents purchasing green and smart home appliances, the guideline said.

"These measures will encourage home appliance enterprises to establish recycling platforms, accelerate the frequency of the replacement of appliances, as well as drive the popularization of energy-saving products," said Wang Yongtao, senior research manager of the white goods unit at market consultancy All View Cloud.

Wang explained that the growth rate in the domestic home appliance market is slowing down, so the guideline is conducive in tapping the consumption potential and boosting the sales growth of the entire home appliances industry.

Statistics from All View Cloud showed that the sales revenue of home appliances totaled 396.8 billion yuan ($55.4 billion) nationwide in the first half of this year, down 3.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

According to the China Renewable Resources Recycling Association, the number of household appliances and electronic products scrapped is expected to reach 137 million units in 2020, increasing by about 20 percent annually.

"The country enjoys huge potential in the recycling and reutilizing of waste products, the market scale of which has amounted to more than 200 billion yuan," said Liang Zhenpeng, an independent consumer electronics analyst, adding that the guideline will boost the intelligent upgrading of the traditional home appliances industry.

Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd has ramped up efforts to recycle waste products. Nearly 1,500 metric tons of metals, such as aluminum, iron and copper, were extracted last year, and nearly 2 million units of household appliances and electronic products were recycled last year, in order to avoid polluting the water and soil.

TCL Corp has set up two recycling companies - TCL-Aobo Environmental Protection and Development Co Ltd in Tianjin and TCL-Deqing Environmental Protection and Development Co Ltd in Shantou, South China's Guangdong province.

The two companies recycled more than 3.2 million units of waste home appliances last year, with its total weight reaching over 95,000 metric tons.