As over 56 million waste refrigerators reach their end-of-life in China each year, the waste refrigerator recycling and disassembly industry is undergoing a profound technological revolution and industrial upgrading. According to the White Paper on China's Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Recycling, Treatment and Comprehensive Utilization Industry (2024), the theoretical total scrapped volume of products in the first batch of the national recycling catalog reached 289 million units in 2024. Among these, scrapped refrigerators accounted for 56.1991 million units, a notable proportion. The field of waste refrigerator recycling and disassembly, characterized by the highest technical complexity and the greatest environmental risks, has become a key window into the modernization level of the entire home appliance recycling industry.
In the past, the industry norm was defined by “a hammer and a welding torch.” Research from the 2024 White Paper indicates that the average industry disassembly efficiency for waste refrigerators was 64.6 units per person per day in 2024. Although the production pace slowed compared to 2023 due to a policy adjustment period, this efficiency represents an increase of dozens of times over traditional manual methods. This achievement is inseparable from the widespread adoption of intelligent waste refrigerator recycling and disassembly production lines as standard in modern recycling plants, driving the transformation of the entire waste appliance recycling industry from labor-intensive to technology-intensive.
The transformation focuses primarily on three aspects: the maturation of crushing and sorting technology, the improvement of resource recovery rates, and heightened environmental protection requirements.
The standardized recycling and disassembly process chain for most waste refrigerators includes steps such as coarse crushing, fine crushing, magnetic separation, eddy current separation, and air separation. As a leading enterprise in China's WEEE recycling sector, Vary Tech began operations in 2007. In 2009, it pioneered the application of the combined "Dual-Shaft Shredding + Vertical Crushing" process for waste refrigerators, integrated with sorting processes like magnetic and eddy current separation. This system achieves a waste plastic sorting rate of over 97%, a metal (copper, aluminum) sorting rate of over 98%, and an iron sorting rate of over 99%. These sorting indices for metals and plastics have become the industry's benchmark.
The 2024 White Paper notes that leading industry players have widely adopted negative pressure design in the pre-disassembly stage, ensuring 100% safe recovery of refrigerants (CFCs/HCFCs) and flammable foaming agents like cyclopentane. For instance, a Sichuan-based appliance recycling company, utilizing Vary Tech's solutions, has equipped its entire production line with an air purification and full negative-pressure dust removal system. An air curtain was also installed at the pre-disassembly stage, greatly improving the working environment. Another Vary Tech client recovers and treats over 2,000 tons of refrigerants annually; their compliant disposal in 2024 was equivalent to reducing CO₂ emissions by approximately 4.61 million tons.
The social value of the waste refrigerator recycling and disassembly industry extends far beyond "scrap selling," having evolved into a critical node in the circular economy.
In accordance with the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment, China is committed to phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Standardized waste refrigerator recycling and disassembly is a vital channel for the recovery and safe disposal of refrigerants. Data shows that compliant processing effectively prevents the direct environmental hazards posed by heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants in WEEE, yielding significant environmental benefits.
The resource substitution effect of waste refrigerator recycling is remarkable. Recycling one ton of materials from waste refrigerators saves, on average, 1.5 tons of iron ore, 0.5 tons of bauxite, and a substantial amount of virgin plastic raw materials.
The strategic metals like copper and aluminum recovered annually by this industry serve as a beneficial supplement, helping to reduce China's dependence on foreign mineral resources.
In 2024, the 11-year-old "Treatment Fund Subsidy System" transitioned to a "Special Fund for Reward-in-Place-of-Subsidy" policy, with an annual budget adjusted to 5 billion yuan. This policy shift initially led to a slight decrease in the volume of waste appliances processed to 94 million units (sets) and a drop in the average capacity utilization rate to 47.56%, revealing challenges related to overcapacity and market adjustment. However, the new policy also incentivizes major appliance manufacturers like Haier and Gree to deepen their involvement in building recycling and treatment systems, accelerating industrial chain integration.
Simultaneously, the industry's standardization process has created numerous green jobs while mitigating the severe environmental problems associated with informal disassembly.
Faced with opportunities from China's "Two New" policies (Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in) and challenges from evolving product structures, the industry is advancing in three key directions.
In response to trends of multi-category, small-batch recycling, flexible disassembly lines integrating machine vision, AI recognition, and robotic grasping are under development. For example, a technology pioneered by a Shanghai-based institution aims to increase disassembly efficiency by over 20% and facilitate the refined recovery of complex components like circuit boards from future smart refrigerators.
Industry competition is shifting from volume to the depth of material value extraction. Using a large-scale intelligent waste refrigerator recycling line provided by Vary Tech, Haier achieves efficient classification and recovery of waste plastics and has established a high-quality plastic crushing, washing, and sorting line, producing recycled materials with purity up to 99.9%. Furthermore, in 2025, Vary Tech incorporated a dedicated wire sorting device for harnesses within its refrigerator lines and innovated the pre-disassembly hole-drilling and oil-draining process.
The most profound change lies in the upgrading of business models and policy drivers.
The new special fund policy explicitly encourages appliance manufacturers to establish their own recycling systems, offering incentives based on processing volume coefficients. This drives brands like Haier, Midea, and Gree to incorporate recyclability into product design from the outset.
Platforms like Aibolv and Haihuishou, alongside corporate platforms such as Haier's "Haijing Recycling," are connecting consumers directly with formal treatment channels, improving recovery rates.
The top ten enterprises/groups by treatment capacity now account for over 50% of the industry's total capacity, forming a landscape where national leaders coexist with regional players.
The evolution of the waste appliance recycling industry is an indispensable part of China's green manufacturing system. Its progress now depends not only on corporate technological investment but on multi-dimensional efforts from policy, technology, and consumers.
Refine the long-term "reward-in-place-of-subsidy" mechanism, optimize incentives based on product categories and regional factors, and strengthen environmental oversight.
Implement EPR and eco-design to make products easier to disassemble and recycle.
Foster green consumption habits, using formal channels like trade-in programs for old appliances.
The waste appliance recycling and disassembly industry, once operating behind the scenes, is now stepping into the spotlight as a benchmark for societal circular economy development. Every technological advance and innovative model adds a solid pillar to our collective sustainable future.
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