Shenzhen Xintiandi Electronics Market is located in the southeastern part of Huaqiang North, an inconspicuous building on Epworth and one of the major distribution centers for discarded mobile phone parts in the country.
Disassembled mobile phones after the dismantling of the parts here are placed on the table, and here is the wholesale flow to all parts of the country .Reporters after many days of investigation and interview learned that the recycling of mobile phones recycling complete chain has long been formed, but because of the relevant laws and regulations Lagging, this large-scale and highly profitable recycling chain has long been in a "gray zone", not only causing huge waste of resources but also harming the ecological environment and even laying the hidden dangers of personal information disclosure.
Parts market 'stranger' do not enter
November 28, Xintiandi communications electronics market is still crowded customers, wholesalers from all over the country packed with lobby on the first floor.
Xintiandi communications electronics market on the first floor hall was nearly 100 counters cut into 'back' shape, each counter has its own franchise of the abandoned mobile phone parts.Other counter franchise phone camera, and some counters franchise phone motherboards, and some counter franchise Mobile screen, and some specializes in mobile phone battery counter ...
'Boss, you first say a price slightly?' In the face of press inquiries, this is a unified answer given by all businesses. Although lobby on the first floor of the Xintiandi communications electronics market is open on three sides, it does not welcome 'strangers' The price given by the inquirer is too outrageous, and the merchant will consider the buyer as a "living person" and thus refuse further communication.
According to a reporter visited the survey, an iPhone5S phone 'lens + flash' price range of 3 yuan to 4 yuan, at least wholesale hundreds, and an iPhone4S motherboard price range up and down in 20 yuan, usually 10 motherboards Sold for a bundle.
Counter cell phones sold less than 1 square centimeter in size, they are hundreds of stacked in the shoe box.According to each counter with 200 cell phone lens calculation, 100 counters have 20,000 cell phone lens, and this represents They are disassembled from 20,000 phones.
If more than 600 meters Aihua Road radius for the circle, a radius of 1 square kilometer gathered within at least 5 'electronic communications market' by each 'communications market' with 20,000 abandoned mobile phone computing, which 1 km , At least 100,000 units of disassembled mobile phones are undergoing 'underground sales'.
One sellers said that these abandoned mobile phone parts will be processed and refurbished in some factories and workshops, re-enter the market as refurbished parts, or re-enter the store as a refurbished machine.
Shenzhen auspicious communications accessories market, the main product is precisely after the renovation of the mobile phone parts, in particular, the main screen to refurbish the phone.According to a survey interviewed by a millet Max generation of cell phones refurbished screen price range of 95 to 98 yuan , And a iPhone4S mobile phone renovation screen priced at 80 yuan.
In fact, the auspicious communications accessories market and Xintiandi communications electronics market only across the street, however, these two markets is the entire abandoned mobile phone components underground circulation chain both ends.
Underground flow chain secretly grow
Chinese people are changing the frequency of mobile phones is accelerating.
According to Sun Wenping, president of Shenzhen Mobile Phone Industry Association, a few years ago, the association set up 40 sampling points in Huaqiang North and took samples after a year's recovery. The data shows that consumers change phones on average every 20 months.
According to the company's second-hand mobile trading platform data, the frequency of mobile phone replacement in China has been reduced from 18 to 24 months two years ago to the present 12 to 15 months.
Since March 2017, the number of second-hand mobile phones used by consumers across the country has changed from 1 million to 3 million per month.
According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of October 2017, China has a total of 1,403,436,000 mobile phones According to the data released by China Institute of Information and Communications, the domestic mobile phone market in 2016 was 560 million.
"The Chinese have more than 90% mobile phone coverage, so every time a new mobile phone is sold, it replaces an old mobile phone," said Sun Wenping, a rough estimate by this method that China has 450 million units a year Phone idle.
However, the formulation and implementation of China's policies and regulations concerning the entry of mobile phones into the circular economy are relatively lagging behind, and until March 1, 2016, the Catalog of Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products (2014 Edition) is officially implemented, the mobile phone truly enters as an electronic product Circular economy within the rules and regulations.
This led to the long-term recovery and re-use of abandoned cell phones can not enter the scope of government regulation, the underground circulation chain is gradually growing.
Wen Zongguo, director of Tsinghua University's Center for Circular Economy Industry, said: "The main problem with the underground circulation chain is the lack of standards and supervision of reusing products. The quality is not guaranteed. And actually, many of the unused parts left over from discarded handsets are disassembled It was illegally dumped and would hurt the environment. '
Abandoned cell phone flow can not be monitored
How many abandoned mobile phones really enter the standard recovery channels? Wen Zonggu given the figure is 2%, which means that the vast majority of abandoned mobile phones into the underground gray chain, the flow of monitoring.
In early November, at the 'China Business Roundtable 2017' held in Shenzhen, the relevant person in charge of corporate social responsibility department of Huawei introduced that as of the end of 2016, Huawei set up 705 waste electronic product recycle bans in 36 countries around the world, On the recovery system, however, the amount of recovery of electronic products such as mobile phones and expected a larger difference.
'For ordinary people, the biggest concern that discarded cell phones can not enter the standard recycling channel is personal information privacy and data security.Mobile phones are often involved in mobile phone banking, Alipay, personal data and other sensitive information security, the gray industry chain of business-to-individuals Information security is not guaranteed, it is easy to have personal information disclosure. 'Wen Zongguo said.
Shenzhen Mobile Phone Industry Association launched a cell phone recycling charity called 'Green Handkerchief' in 2010. President Sun Wenping admitted that this activity will not go on after six months. 'The ordinary people think that the original three or four thousand yuan Buy a cell phone, the last being recycled can only sell a few dozen dollars or even a few dollars, high also sell hundreds of dollars, the psychological drop too much. Many people feel that they are not bad money, hand over It is more likely to reveal privacy than to throw at home.
This view has been recognized by Lu Zhigeng, 'The bottleneck of abandoned mobile phone recycling is that people now have the problem of asymmetric information and trust in the mobile phone recycling industry, many consumers still do not know the existence of online mobile phone recycling platform, as well as consumers Will worry about the recovery of mobile phone information security issues.
Formal enterprises and small workshops difficult competition
Abandoned cell phones can not enter the standard recycling channels, the loss of not only personal privacy, there are precious metal resources. Waste electrical and electronic products have a wide range of metals, including gold, silver, copper, aluminum, rare earth metals, etc., and electrical and electronic products Metals containing high grade, can reach 10 times more than the primary ore.
Sichuan Zhongming comprehensive utilization of renewable resources companies in recent years began to dismantle the discarded mobile phone components and deep processing.Peng Bing, general manager of the company said: 'According to my company experience, an abandoned cell phone contains 11 grams of copper, 0.15 grams of silver , 0.025 grams of gold and 0.008 grams of palladium, in addition to lithium from mobile phones can also recover lithium.
Because of the lack of official statistics, the cost of the industry has been difficult to measure.Peng Bing introduced, as a regular circular economy in the mobile phone business, an abandoned cell phone The entire industry chain cycle costs about 16 yuan.
At present, although the mobile phones are included in the Catalog of Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products (2014 Edition), the enterprises engaged in the dismantling of used mobile phones are not included in the list of enterprises subsidized by the National Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Dismantling Products.
Wen Zongguo believes that regular enterprises engaged in recycling mobile phones abandoned the cost far higher than the individual small workshops and illegal businesses. 'Regular enterprises in the dismantling of mobile phones, deep processing, the first to pay 17% of the value-added tax, but also pay staff salaries and Insurance and environmental investment are also relatively high, which adds a lot of cost to small workshops and illegal dismantling enterprises and is not competitive in the market. '
At present, there is no relevant subsidy for dismantling mobile phones dismantled, and if the state subsidies will be more conducive to the recycling of mobile phone resources recycling industry to large-scale and industrialized development, it will have more development prospects. "Peng Bing said.
Online recycling or outlet
Sichuan Zhongming comprehensive utilization of renewable resources recycling companies abandoned the phone, the upper reaches of the sellers are mainly located in the western region, mainly relying on small business vendors, mobile phone sales and maintenance businesses, as well as some from Internet companies.
Wen Zongguo refers to the individual laborers in the society who are engaged in the recycling of waste electrical and electronic products and other renewable resources as 'flow collectors' or 'scavengers'. "They are an important part of the front end of the circular economy and the major force in recycling electrical and electronic garbage. They earn income by recycling waste materials, usually by simple sorting, packaging and circulation, which has little environmental impact on its own.
According to a survey conducted by a professor at Tsinghua University, there are a large number of practitioners recycling renewable resources in our country. There are estimated to be more than 12 million people and more than 100,000 enterprises. Among them, many small businesspeople often Be willing to recycle the mobile phones with high added value, but their recycling is not a standard teardown enterprise.
Zhongming Recycling employs nearly 300 employees to dismantle the waste electrical appliances, per capita dismantling of mobile phones dismantled more than 40,000.Peng Bing said that through the pre-market research, the company in the western region can be recycled each year more than 20 million abandoned handsets, To this end the company built a production line dealing with 11 million abandoned cell phone resources.
According to Wen Zonggu given data, even if the company handled 11 million of all abandoned cell phones is all '2%', the overall size of abandoned cell phones have also been more than 500 million.However, Peng Bing said frankly that the regeneration of the year Abandon the number of mobile phones, far from representing the '2%'.
Wen Zongguo suggested that in the process of urban development, a simple and standardized recycle site for waste electrical and electronic equipment should be set up. For example, recycle facilities should be provided in the community or large-scale supermarkets to provide recycle bin information service platform to improve the convenience and pertinence of recycle, Of the personal information technically thorough removal, thereby increasing the proportion of abandoned mobile phones into the standard recovery system.
Starting from 2017, the exchange of excellent products and Sichuan Zhongming renewable resources comprehensive utilization of the company to establish a strategic partnership, the former from the online recycling of mobile phones, 25% belongs to the second vending machines, they will be shipped to the latter Formal factory dismantling and deep processing.