China's mobile recycle market flourishes as people combat climate change

China's mobile recycle market flourishes when more environmentally conscious people upgrade their devices to newer models each year, CCTV reported on Wednesday.

China's mobile ownership totaled about 1.9 billion in 2021 and more consumers prefer to choose the old for new service or "trade-ins" with the change of consumption concept, the report said citing data from China Association of Electronics Equipments for Technology Development.

Over seventy percent of consumers would like to use the old for new service for a new mobile in a brick-and-mortar JD for electronic products in Beijing; CCTV reported citing manager of the store.

Mobile phones update quickly and many products have high-value trade-ins. With trade-in services launching in December last year, the recycling volume almost doubles every month, said He Lei, manager of a consumer electronics store in Beijing.

Recycling and replacement services have become standard in mobile phone services in China. The combination of online and offline modes of online appraisal and door-to-door recycling has also greatly improved the recycle rate, the report said.

China's accumulative number of unused mobile phones is expected to reach 6 billion during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), CCTV reported citing data from CAEETD.

Smartphones contain many precious and rare earth metals that make them valuable targets for recycle drives as China, the world's largest smartphone market, seeks to reduce carbon emissions, South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

Many of the materials including gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium and rare earth metals, can be reused. This gives companies an incentive to get those devices back, the report said.

Asia was second in collecting and recycling electronic waste in 2019, at a rate of 11.7 percent, following Europe, the global leader at 42.5 percent, according to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report from the United Nations Institution for Training and Research.

Circular economy and the construction of a waste recycling system is important for realizing the goal to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, according to the latest five-year plan for the country's social and economic development through 2025.