On August 25, the 2022 development report on plastic recycling of China's electrical and electronic products (hereinafter referred to as the "report") was officially released. Lenovo Group, as a leading scientific and technological manufacturing enterprise, its low-carbon practices in the fields of recycled plastic application and innovation, waste product recycling and recycling, etc. were included in the report recycling cases.
This report is issued by China material recycling association. It mainly introduces the situation analysis and industry cases of the production and marketing, recycling, recycling and processing of plastics in domestic electronic and electrical products, and provides a reference for the exploration of plastic recycling in the electronic product manufacturing industry.
According to public data, plastic production is expected to account for 13% of the global carbon budget by 2050, and only about 14% of all plastic waste is recycled. The reuse mode has great plastic reduction potential. Research shows that only 10% of plastic products need to be reused, and the global marine plastic waste can be reduced by 50% every year.
As a mature material, engineering plastics are widely used to produce decorative housings and internal mechanism components of electronic products. However, the impact of the production and development of engineering plastics on the environment cannot be ignored. The report points out that the components of waste plastics in electronic products are mixed and it is difficult to separate and purify, which makes it more difficult to recover and recycle engineering plastics. At present, the traditional waste plastic treatment relies on landfill and incineration. In the long run, the impact on the environment cannot be ignored. The industry urgently needs a harmless waste plastic recycling and treatment scheme.
As the first technology manufacturing enterprise to engage in ESG practice in China, Lenovo Group has always paid close attention to environmental protection, circular economy, energy saving and carbon reduction. Lenovo Group also provides industry-leading solutions for reducing the source control of plastic pollution and effectively avoiding plastic pollution through green product design, the use of closed-loop recycled plastics, and packaging technology innovation. Lenovo Group overcame the challenge of ICT product design and realized the wide use of recycled plastics in notebook, desktop, workstation, display and peripheral products. Since 2005, Lenovo Group has used more than 115 million kg of recycled plastics from post industrial, post consumption and closed-loop consumption. Lenovo Group promises that by 2025, all computer products will contain recycled plastics to support products to meet higher ecological design requirements and provide consumers with green and low-carbon products. In addition, Lenovo Group has also begun to add sea going plastics (OBP) to its products, and it is estimated that about 70-80 tons of sea going plastics can be recycled every year.
In addition, Lenovo Group also pays great attention to the recovery and recycling of waste products. Since 2005, Lenovo Group has handled 290648 metric tons of computer equipment. During the calendar year 2020, 5% of all the wastes recovered by Lenovo group were reused as products or parts, 86% were recycled as materials, 2% were incinerated as fuel and recovered energy, 6% were incinerated as garbage, and 1% were buried. Lenovo Group plans to recycle and reuse 800 million pounds of scrapped products by 2025 (accumulated since 2005).
The report points out that Lenovo Group has accumulated a great deal of practical experience in the research, development, application and management of plastic recycling economy, followed the principles of ecological design and product life cycle evaluation, and used the green supply chain management ability to lead the application of recycling and reuse schemes of engineering plastics in China's electronics industry, achieving a good synergy of environmental, economic and social benefits. In April 2022, Lenovo Group's advanced practice case of plastic recycling economy was included in China's first research report on plastic pollution - China's plastic pollution control concept and practice. The practical experience of plastic reduction provides a scientific and reliable reference for the industry.
