China Issues 15th Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy: Targets 5.1 Billion Tonnes of Recycled Resources by

China is the world's largest consumer of non-ferrous metals, and its foreign dependence for strategic minerals such as copper, aluminium, lithium and cobalt has remained high for a long time, with some varieties exceeding 70%. Constraints on underground primary mineral supply are intensifying, while the scale of valuable metals enriched in urban waste is considerable. One tonne of waste circuit boards contains far more copper than typical primary copper ore, and discarded mobile phones also contain precious metals. The recently issued 15th Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy Development specifies that by 2030, the annual recycling volume of major renewable resources will reach 5.1 billion tonnes, and the output value of the resource recycling industry will reach RMB 8 trillion.

Germany has revised its laws to promote the recycling of household appliances, old cars, batteries and beverage packaging; Denmark has achieved reuse of waste gas and waste materials through an "industrial symbiosis system"; Japan has proposed strengthening the circular system for metals and other resources from raw materials to products and waste. China discards hundreds of millions of mobile phones each year, scrapped vehicles exceed 10 million, and the generation of waste household appliances ranks among the highest globally. It is estimated that recycling 10,000 tonnes of waste copper is equivalent to reducing the mining of about 1 million tonnes of copper ore; using 10,000 tonnes of recycled aluminium can save about 30,000 tonnes of standard coal.

Current development of urban mining faces practical constraints. In the front-end recycling stage, business entities are fragmented, with a high proportion of small and scattered collection points, and classification and collection levels vary. Mixed collection and mixed dismantling occur from time to time, affecting the quality stability of recycled raw materials. In the mid-stream processing stage, some enterprises remain at the level of rough processing and dismantling, producing mostly primary crude materials that are difficult to meet the material standards of high-end manufacturing. Standards and market integration are insufficient, carbon footprint accounting methods are not fully unified, and the green and low-carbon value of recycled materials lacks an authoritative certification benchmark. Downstream markets hold stereotypes about recycled raw materials, making it difficult for high-quality recycled products to gain market recognition.

To build an industrial closed loop spanning collection, sorting, processing and application, it is necessary to regulate the front-end recycling and circulation order, guide industry players towards scale and standardization, and improve sorting and collection levels. The processing stage should be upgraded, with enhanced deep-processing capabilities to produce high-quality recycled metal products suitable for equipment manufacturing and new energy industries. The standard and traceability system should be improved, and mutual recognition of low-carbon labels promoted, so that the resource value and carbon reduction value of recycled materials can be verified and compared. In key sectors such as automobiles, household appliances and construction, green procurement guidance should be improved to open downstream application space for high-quality recycled raw materials.