Master Thesis for Sustainable Management

2019/6/5

The challenges of “cradle-to-cradle”

strategy - A case study with Huawei
company

Authors:
Xiaoyu Zhang
Shuai Huang
Supervisor:
Emilene Leite

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Abstract
The cradle to cradle (C2C) is a sustainable business strategy that mimics the natural recycling
cycle and waste is reused, the question of when and how to apply the C2C concept
successfully in business is still controversial. This thesis takes Huawei, the leading enterprise
in the mobile communication industry, as an example, and to investigate the challenges for
Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing an effective C2C strategy to
achieve a sustainable development. This study used the semi-structured interviews in the
qualitative data collection method to interview both Huawei and China Telecommunications’
managers. Data analysis shows that for the electronics industry with low recycling rate and
high pollution, Huawei still faces many challenges in adopting the C2C strategy，which
includes alloy recycling, recycling of electronic products in consumers' hands, disassembly
problems, and recycling of electronic products by value, Another challenge is the mismatch
between C2C evaluation mechanism and China's mobile communications industry. Only fully
considered cradle to cradle, cradle to Grave, and Life cycle, the sustainable mode of the
mobile communications industry would be reached.

keywords: Cradle to Cradle, Cradle to Grave, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Circular
economy, Linear economy, Upcycle, Technical cycle, Disassembly, Material composition,
Reverse logistics, Recycling behavior.

key Abbreviations:
C2C: Cradle to Cradle
C2G: Cradle to Grave
CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility
LCA: Life Cycle Assessment
MBDC: McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
EPEA: Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency

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1.Introduction 3
1.1 Problem discussion 4
1.2 Research question 5
1.3 Purpose 5
2. Theoretical framework 5
2.1 Upcycle-Core idea of C2C 5
2.2 C2C and Circular economy 6
2. 3 C2C and LCA 7
2.3.1 Comparison between C2C and LCA 7
2.3.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA 7
2.4 C2C evaluation mechanism 8
2.4.1 Defects of C2C evaluation mechanism 8
2.5 Biological cycle and Technical cycle 9
2.6 Design for disassembly 10
2.7 Material composition 11
2.8 The system of reverse logistics 11
2.9 Determinants of recycling behavior 12
2.10 The research model 13
3. Methodology 14
3.1 Research design 14
3.1.1 Case background 15
3.2 Research approach 15
3.3 Sampling type 16
3.3.1 Sampling frame and sample selection 16
3.3.2 Sample background 17
3.4 Data collection 18
3.4.1 Date source-Primary and Secondary Data collecting 18
3.4.2 Semi-structured interview 18
3.5 Ethical and procedural considerations 19
3.6 Data analysis 19
3.7 Operationalization 20
3.7.1 Huawei Company 20
3.7.2 China Telecommunications Corporation 21
4. Empirical data 22
4.1 C2C and Circular economy 22
4. 2 C2C and LCA 23

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 4.2.1 comparison between C2C and LCA 23
4.2.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA 24
4.3 C2C evaluation mechanism 25
4.4 Biological cycle and Technical cycle 26
4.5 Design for disassembly 27
4.6 Material composition 27
4.7 The system of reverse logistics 28
4.8 Determinants of recycling behavior 29
5. Discussion 30
5.1 The system of reverse logistics 30
5.1.1 Material composition 30
5.1.2 Determinants of recycling behavior 31
5.2 Circular economy 31
5.2.1 Technical cycle 32
5.3 C2C evaluation mechanism 33
5.4 Sustainable Mode of telecommunications industry 33
5.4.1 Design for disassembly 34
6. Conclusion 35
7. Recommendation for company 35
8. Limitation and Suggestions for future research
36
Reference 37
Appendix: 43

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1.Introduction
Most developed countries have environmental regulations that stipulate that chemical
manufacturers, power plants and users have a responsibility to handle chemical waste
properly. In the mid-1980s, this was often referred to as "cradle to grave" resource
management.Today, modern environmental management sets out sustainable manufacturing
practices that highlight preventing waste and responsible care for the planet's natural
resources. The focus on recovery of resources, recycling and reuse can be described as
"cradle to cradle" resource management （Kumar & Putnam,2008). The cradle to cradle
(C2C) is a sustainable business strategy that mimics the natural recycling cycle and waste is
reused. The concept has been created by an American architect named William McDonough
and a German chemist named Michael Braungart. The goal of the cradle-to-cradle approach
is to create a circular resource management process rather than a linear process like a cradle
to a grave. The cradle-to-grave concept is simply the process from birth to death, and its main
goal is to reduce waste. The cradle to cradle method goes a step further, trying to eliminate
waste completely (Study.com, 2019). In C2C strategy, there are two types of nutrients cycle.
There are: i） biological cycle: materials are expect to return to the biosphere in the form of
compost or other nutrients, from which new materials can be produced; and ii） technical
cycle: materials that are not used up during the process of product use can be reprocessed to
allow them to be used in new products (EPEA, 2019). In order to achieve a sustainable world
based on the concept of “cradle to cradle”, products should be beneficial in terms of health,
environment and economy (Toxopeus, De Koeijer&Meij, 2015). The attitude of Zero waste
of C2C has attracted many new enterprises to get into the field of sustainable development
(Bakker, Wever, Teoh& De Clercq, 2010).
In recent years, the improvement of people's living standard is due to the development of
science and technology, more and more consumers pursue personalized commodities and
diversified commodities, which is reflected in the consumption of electronic products. Due to
the change of industrial competition environment and consumer demand, the upgrading speed
of high-tech electronic products is accelerated to meet consumer demand. Since the 1980s,
many developed countries have been working on how to reduce the adverse impact on the
environment in the process of disposing of waste products, and many foreign researchers
have studied these issues, especially the recycling of electronic products: How to select the
method of recycling, optimization model and related theoretical analysis.With the growth of
awareness of environmental protection, many consumer begin to pay close attention to the
company whether to make the use of sustainable materials in their products or services,
whether they take corporate social responsibility (CSR) to protect the environment and
society, which makes the traditional industry model "cradle to grave" is not enough to satisfy
the consumers demand of reducing adverse effects on the environment.Therefore, the concept
of supply chain management has been transformed from "cradle to grave" to "cradle to
cradle"（Khan, Dong, Zhang & Khan, 2017）. However, in the electronics industry, success
in achieving ecological and economic goals is a challenge (Weznek, 2003).The waste stream
of e-waste is now expanding, but due to the low level of recycling, many electronic products
are eventually thrown into landfills. The toxins released by burning e-waste cause pollution

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and health problems (O'Lear, 2010).By 2010, the International Electronics Association's
recyclers estimate that 1 billion computers will be discarded. They also claim to recycle 1.5
billion pounds of electronic equipment each year, including 40 million computer devices,
including processors, displays and printers, Half of the recyclable material is recycled metal
(Reverselogisticstrends.com, 2019). Due to the short life cycle of electronic products and the
large number of defective products, traditional incineration, crushing, burying and other
processes have caused serious harm to the environment due to mercury, arsenic, chromium,
lead and other heavy metal elements contained in the products. If the C2C model is
implemented in the product design process, recycled materials can be recycled （Khan et al.
2017). In order to answer the research question, a case study of Huawei will be used.

1.1 Problem discussion

The main value of C2C is that it raises many questions about current business practices.
However, the question of when and how to apply the C2C concept successfully in business is
still controversial（Bocken, de Pauw, Bakker & van der Grinten, 2016). O'lear (2010)
discusses the C2C business model in chapter 5 of her book about environmental politics.
Different from the mainstream ideas, O'lear (2010) critically considered the social problems
that might arise from C2C. The main emphasis is on the power of ideology. The author
believes that ideology affects consumers' values and ultimately changes consumer spending
habits. In order to shorten the service life of products, businesses have created the concept of
"planned obliteration", that is, using inferior raw materials to produce products, thus
accelerating the repeated purchase frequency of consumers and resulting in a larger amount
of garbage. As a result, companies are designing the recycling of commercial waste to
'whiten' the rise in total waste. Consumers are beginning to see their spending habits as
harmless and considering the resulting waste as legitimate. Consumers no longer think about
the environmental costs caused by early scrapping, nor do they delved into the fate of
recycled waste. The power of this ideology is dominated by corporations, and they can even
gain a good reputation from it.In such a business mindset, even a shift in strategy to a cradle-
to-cradle model would not help, as planned obliteration still exists and consumer habits have
changed already. When environmental protection becomes a means of commercial marketing,
benefits will be the primary factor for business consideration. Recycling policies for this
purpose only exacerbate the consequences of inefficient resource allocation. It is difficult to
realize the ecologically effective sustainable operation mode that is imagined in the C2C
theory.
However, the literature on how to combine C2C concepts with practice to achieve
ecologically effective sustainable development is limited. This creates barriers and a lack of
guidance for companies that want to implement a C2C strategy. Furthermore, Toxopeus et al.
(2015) still points out that C2C production requires a systematic certification process to
obtain certification labels. The C2C certification label will also have a positive impact on the
reputation of the organization as a reward to the company that implements the C2C
development model effectively. It can be found from Huawei's 2014 sustainable development

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report and the company's official website that the C2C business model of circular economy
was advocated and promoted by the company, which formed an output of ideology virtually
simultaneously. If so, will this kind of C2C ideology output have a positive impact on the
Huawei company's sustainable development? On the other side, Huawei set up more than 190
waste electronic product recycling sites in the Asia-pacific region to help promote the
implementation of C2C strategy, but the follow-up progress of this project is not shown in the
company's annual sustainable development report (Building a better connected world, 2014).
The study found that, in 2015, there were nearly 7 billion mobile phone users worldwide
(ITU, 2015). Meanwhile, the global mobile phone recycling rates have not reached 10%
(Tanskanen, 2012). The previous data apparently does not meet the requirements of C2C
design paradigm for product recyclability, which means the current situation of mobile
communication industry is not conducive to the realization of C2C strategy. This also brings
challenges to Huawei's C2C development.

1.2 Research question

What is the current status of Mobile Communications Enterprise's "cradle to cradle" strategy
in China? - a case study with Huawei as an example.

1.3 Purpose
To investigate the challenges for Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing
an effective C2C strategy to achieve a sustainable development.

2. Theoretical framework

2.1 Upcycle-Core idea of C2C

Braungart and McDonough (2013) point out that pollution is not the core problem behind
environmental disasters, but the real culprit is flawed design. The author proposes a concept
of "upcycle", which aims to encourage people to take good care of all creatures, love all
children and let products interact with nature in the process of product design and
manufacturing. The idea of upcycle requires humans to place themselves in nature to think,
which means to be part of nature rather than to separate ourselves from environment
(Kopnina, 2018). Traditional thinking holds that human beings can only cause damage to the
earth, and the upcycle is similar to C2C philosophy, encourages people to think positively
about the relationship between human beings and nature. We should not limit ourselves to
how to reduce harm, but think optimistically about how to create common interests to
increase eco-effective. The idea that simply treating nature as something need to be protected
is a closed and arrogant thought. It would never harness power from natural such as microbes

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and solar energy. The upcycle encourages entrepreneurs to redefine their business models
with open and innovative thinking, and only by people-oriented manufacturing can develop
C2C products in a real sense. Do not be afraid of failure and frustration is also an important
spiritual force for enterprises in the process of seeking C2C model. Because the nature of
C2C is innovation, it must be based on numerous examples of failure. Therefore, in order to
establish a C2C development model, the entrepreneurship that is brave to accept challenges
and optimistic to face failure is also an important influencing factor. Braungart and
McDonough (2013) criticizes the idea of 'ecologism' that the earth can only be protected by
minimizing people's needs. The authors believe that such a short-sighted idea limits the
development mode of interdependence and common prosperity of human and nature.

2.2 C2C and Circular economy

C2C is regarded as a form of circular economy. A circular economy is an economic
development model characterized by resource conservation and recycling and harmonious
with the environment. The circular economy emphasizes organizing economic activities into
a "resource - product - renewable resource" feedback process (Kopnina, 2018). In order to
achieve this feedback process, it is important to integrate circular economy issues in the early
stages of the product design process. Because once product specifications are developed,
usually only small changes are possible (Bocken, Farracho, Bosworth & Kemp, 2014). Thus,
as a design paradigm of circular economy, C2C should be considered at the very beginning of
product design. The circular economy has been seen as a promising way to help alleviate the
pressure of global sustainable development. Since the circular business model can
continuously reuse products and materials in an economically feasible way and use renewable
resources as far as possible (Geissdoerfer, Savaget, Bocken&Hultink, 2017). Europe and
China have adopted the principle of circular economy as part of their future strategy (Su,
Heshmati, Geng& Yu, 2013).
However, different opinions hold that the core concept of how to conduct with circular
economy is to slow down the flow rate in the closed loop, that is to say, extending the life
cycle of products is the key to the success of the circular economy (Bocken et al. 2016). A
closed loop that moves too fast in a circular economy even put more pressure on the
environment than a traditional linear economy. However, the C2C concept is not focus on the
product life cycle, that is to say, the main role of C2C is just to close the whole loop without
paying attention to the effectiveness within the cycle.
Bocken et al. (2016) indicated that, as a typical representative of circular economy, C2C's
pursuit of more cycles without considering the service life of products will lead to further
acceleration of linear resource flow (selling more and more effective products), resulting in
very limited saving of total resources. Therefore, in the initial product design, enterprises
should try to use environment-friendly and recyclable materials to process the recycled
products, improve product quality and make them enter the recycling cycle. (Khan et al.
2017).

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2. 3 C2C and LCA

2.3.1 Comparison between C2C and LCA

The Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept has become a more mature alternative to the eco-
efficiency concept based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The concept of eco-efficiency
is often defined as “increasing maximum value with minimal resource utilization and
minimal pollution” (Huesemann, 2004). C2C concept challenges traditional methods by
looking to the future of absolute environmental sustainability，the way to achieve it is to
increase the positive impact on the environment by designing “eco-effectiveness” products
rather than designing “Eco-efficiency” products to reduce negative impacts, because Eco-
efficiency aims to reduce the negative environmental footprint of human activities, while
C2C attempts to increase the positive footprint (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). The concept of
eco-efficiency does not involve a long-term vision or strategy, the link between resource
consumption and waste discharge is not well linked to the state of sustainable development,
increased eco-efficiency may lead to an increase in consumption levels. In summary, eco-
efficiency focuses on reducing impacts, thereby increasing the relative environmental
sustainability of products, C2C's sustainability approach is to “maximize the effectiveness
of ecosystems” rather than eco-efficiency methods that reduce damage (Bjørn&Hauschild,
2013).

2.3.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA

The concept of C2C is very focused on material strategy，which is inspired by nature and
shows the future of sustainable development (Bakker et al. 2010). While the C2C concept
represents an inspiring vision for future product design for more continuous material loops
and renewable energy-based energy systems, the performance of C2C products in LCA is
not guaranteed to be good. C2C emphasizes innovation in the direction of continuous up-
cycle at the expense of energy efficiency (Braungart, 2011). C2C tends to generate planned
scrapping. "planned scrapping" refers to the fact that the service life of the products
produced is so short that there is no economic benefit. Therefore, consumers will have to
repeat the purchase, which will promote consumers to buy more products and make the
environment unsustainable (Bulow, 1986). C2C does not see waste itself as a problem, but
care about how to deal with it (Pauli, 2010). The main negative criticism related to C2C is
that its process is related to establishing physical restrictions, instead encouraging to use
materials creatively and extravagantly to shorten product life (Braungart, McDonough
&Bollinger, 2007).

Since the eco-efficiency of C2C products is not considered, from the perspective of LCA,
C2C products are often not as sustainable as eco-efficiency reference products
(Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). Increasing the durability of a product means that it can withstand
longer, more demanding use, making possible a product-service system and a sharing
economy from which owners can derive more value. This contrasts with planned

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obrogation (Brennan, Tennant&Blomsma, 2015). For companies that choose to apply the
C2C concept in product innovation, they cannot record the sustainability of their products
（Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). However, Braungart et al. (2007) pointed out that the analysis
of eco-efficiency should be condemned, because although eco-efficiency can provide short-
term economic and ecological advantages, it lacks a long-term perspective to establish a
truly positive relationship between industry and nature.

2.4 C2C evaluation mechanism

The company can also choose to apply for C2C certification for its products, this
certification has been managed by Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency
(EPEA) and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), but now assigned to non-
profit organizations (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).MBDC evaluates products and materials for
companies of any size, MBDC is the creator of the cradle-to-cradle design framework and
the cradle-to-cradle certification product program, helping businesses gain business value
from products designed For the emerging circular economy（Dyllick&Rost, 2017)， and
the goal of EPEA is to provide high-quality products that are safe for human health and the
environment and can be reused in the fields of biotechnology and biotechnology Gorman
(Gorman, Mehalik, &Werhane, 2017). Certification is divided into five different levels:
basic, copper, silver, gold and platinum, of which gold and platinum have the most
stringent requirements (MBDC, 2019)

2.4.1 Defects of C2C evaluation mechanism

When developing C2C products, enterprises must consider the final destination of each
material in the process of product design. Toxopeus et al. (2015) believes that the company
cannot independently develop a C2C product, and must seek the cooperation of professional
C2C evaluation agencies. However, the study points out that the existing C2C authority still
has some imperfections, which leads to errors in the final evaluation results (Toxopeus et al.
2015). For example, EPEA- a certification agency founded by C2C philosophy creators
William McDonough and Michael Braungart, its expert group mainly consisting with
material experts, the situation has led to the tendency of evaluation agencies to focus on
material (product) optimization rather than encouraging the development of innovative
products (Toxopeus et al. 2015). This goes against the basic concept of C2C - 'eco-
effectiveness rather than eco-efficiency'. The C2C products evaluated by this standard may
only meet the eco-efficiency, but fail to produce eco-effectiveness results. As a matter of fact,
products with C2C 'tags' may not fundamentally fit the cradle-to-cradle theory due to lack of
innovation. EPEA ratings target companies' specific products based on five criteria- material
health, material reutilization, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness (EPEA,
2019). Judging from the cases targeted by Toxopeus et al. (2015)’s research, companies tend
to mainly consider material health and material reutilization into product design, resulting in
the risk that the other three criteria will be neglected. This led to among the three principles

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of C2C - no waste, only sustainable energy and the promote diversity, only the first principle
is actively implemented. On the other hand, due to the lack of energy consumption
assessment in the concept of C2C, C2C products may have the weakness on product life
cycle. Toxopeus et al. (2015) therefore suggest that when designing and manufacturing C2C
products, LCA should be included to improve product sustainability.

2.5 Biological cycle and Technical cycle

Maximizing recycling is often described as a "closed loop," which concept known as a
"cradle-to-cradle" approach (McDonough&Braungart, 2002). There are two broad recycles:
"biology" and "technology". Gaps remain in the development, implementation and
dissemination of effective product solutions and design solutions to support the transition to a
circular economy. The circulatory system approach needs to be adopted at both technical and
biological levels. Within the framework we propose, these levels are called "design for the
technical cycle" and "design for the biological cycle" respectively (Mestre& Cooper, 2017).

"Biological cycle design" represents biological design solutions that occur (or are inspired by)
in natural ecosystems, in which materials are recycled over time in nature.Bio-based
recycling strategy, using biomaterials, at the end of its life cycle, can safely return to the
biosphere to provide nutrients for (micro)biological life without waste (Mestre& Cooper,
2017).

"Technology cycle design" means the use and conversion of materials and energy and/or
technologies and the optimization of their design to the highest possible level of efficiency.
The goal is to minimize material and energy inputs and emissions emissions throughout the
product's life cycle, while maximizing value propositions for users and society (Mestre&
Cooper, 2017). Technical cycle strategies include "slow the loop strategies" and "close the
loop strategies". "Slow the loop strategies" include slowing down the flow of material at each
stage of the life cycle, such as the design of durability and extended product life (Vezzoli and
Manzini, 2008); It also addresses recent developments from the perspective of value added
users, such as emotionally durable designs (Chapman, 2005). "Close the loop strategies"
includes recyclability design strategy, detachable design strategy and appropriate material
selection strategy. It is worth noting that there may be tensions between the policies that need
to be addressed (such as between durability and recyclability). "Technology cycle design"
solutions can be developed at a progressive level of innovation in the short or medium term
(Mestre& Cooper, 2017). ‘slow the loop strategies’ and ‘close the loop strategies’ can be
implemented in existing business models to optimize their current level of efficiency,
although in some cases more radical solutions may be required.

Setting an example that combine the "slow the loop strategies" and "close the loop strategies",
Fairphone represents a new approach to the design and manufacture of mobile phones.
Founded in the Netherlands in 2013, Fairphone aims to "create positive social and

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environmental impacts from the beginning to the end of the life cycle of mobile phones"
(Fairphone, 2019) by four main principles: durable design, fair materials, good working
conditions, and reuse and recycling. The qualities associated with Fairphone's looping focus
on the later stages of its life cycle and emerge from its modular design. Fairphone also
highlights its social responsibility in managing the end-of-life of its and other brands of
phones. Its partner, Teqcycle, receives refurbished phones (used in the second-hand market)
and recycled them (when the refurbished cost exceeds the phone's value).

2.6 Design for disassembly

"Design for disassembly" is a strategy that overlaps technology and biocycle design and is a
contribution to technology and biocycle design to ensure that products and components can
be easily separated and reassembled. This strategy is also critical for the separation of
materials entering different cycles (biological and technological) (Reijnders, 2008). Design
for disassembly technology is crucial to allow for higher technical efficiency (Chiodo, 2005).
Thus, disassembly should be considered in the process of product design. Specifically, during
disassembly, toxic and hazardous substances in the product may increase the potential impact
on human and environmental health (Huang, Liang& Yi, 2017). Despite to that, The product
disassembly process also could bring a positive impact on the environment (Deniz&Seckin,
2002). Effective disassembly design enables the recovery of valuable components, and the
rest can be recycled, re-sold, or stored for future use (Brennan, Gupta&Taleb, 1994). At the
design stage, product modularization should also be considered to simplify the product and
improve disassembly efficiency. Product modularization is dividing the product into several
parts- namely several modules. Each part has independent function but geometric connection
with a consistent interface and consistent input and output interface unit. The same type of
module can be reused in the product family and swaps. Due to the modularity of the product,
the components are highly common, so the product disassembly efficiency can be accelerated.
Some studies have shown that the disassembly efficiency of products has a direct impact on
the economic benefits of environmental protection products. In most cases, 80% of the
manufacturing cost of products can be determined at the design stage (Tuncel et al., 1993).

The key point of disassembly design is that it is easy to disassemble and can remove parts
and materials without damage (Chiodo and Boks, 2002). Since most of today's used products
are comminuted, designs that are easy to disassemble may irritate for reuse and recycling.
From a C2C perspective, it makes sense to redesign products that are easy to disintegrate and
upgrade, otherwise the most likely scenario for their obsolescence would be landfill and/or
incineration (Bakker et al. 2010). The C2C model is a new perspective of sustainable
development. Its basic idea is that the safe recovery and use of raw materials should be
considered in product design, and nutrition management should replace traditional waste
management. C2C pursues green and innovative design; That is, from the first stage of
product design, research and development, the product should be carefully designed and easy
to disassemble, so that the raw materials are easy to be recycled, can establish a recycling
system and raw material recycling network platform, so that the raw materials back to the
biological cycle or processing cycle, which can effectively avoid the waste of raw materials

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and energy, but also can reduce the cost. Clean energy should be used whenever possible in
the manufacturing process. In the sales stage, the C2C model is helpful to open up new
markets for raw materials, transform wastes into valuable materials, and enhance the
competitiveness of enterprises through innovation (Khan, et al. 2017).

2.7 Material composition

Cost-effectiveness may be the biggest problem facing enterprises in implementing C2C. A
cost-effective analysis is a way to assess the value of a project by comparing the full cost and
benefits of the project. Dutch companies such as Oce (copiers and printers) That lease high-
end copiers may find it relatively easy to implement C2C principles because of a 100% return
(Bakker et al. 2010）.C2C material strategy involves both material composition and material
flow management.It is a challenge for industrial designers to understand the exact
composition of materials in products (De Clercq，2008).

One issue here is product complexity. For example, electronic products contain printed circuit
boards, which require hundreds of components and materials (Mazurek ， 1999). C2C
requires that products be designed to be easily separated into their pure material parts. In
practice, this means that certain composite materials are not acceptable in C2C design, which
may compromise the overall sustainability and functionality of the product
（Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013）. The use of composite materials and special metal alloys
enables lightweight designs, and important characteristics such as heat and corrosion
resistance. Composite materials are generally not capable of continuous recycling (Daniels et
al. 2004). Although individual alloys can process continuous loop recycling theoretically, but
the premise is that they are not mixed with other alloys, if a product has too many kinds of
alloys, Recycling is not logically possible (Nakajima et al. 2010). LCA research shows that
the environmental benefits of lightweight components far outweigh their lack of recyclability,
while this conclusion relies on automotive fuels, some products rely on the properties of
composites and alloys (such as strength, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance) (Song et al.
2009). Thus, even in an ideal future, the demand for these materials will not be eliminated.
Therefore, banning the use of composite materials will strict limit the possibility of
developing new designs based on heterogeneous materials, thereby limiting innovation.
Supporters of C2C may reply that they praise innovation but not "the wrong technology". In
an ideal C2C future, it is hard to say whether it is realistic to abandon the "wrong technology"
entirely （Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).

2.8 The system of reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is the process from recycling to final processing of the outdated or damaged
products and packages that have been used by the customer. If the company has a "reverse
logistics" system, then the implementation of the C2C principle is even more realistic. The
flow of reverse logistics includes the flow of products, packaging, parts, materials and other
raw materials in the customer's hands, and flows back from the end of the supply chain along

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the supply chain to the corresponding nodes (Lu＆Bostel，2007）.Green reverse logistics is
proposed from the perspective of resource conservation and environmental protection, and is
conducive to the sustainable development of society. The implementation of green reverse
logistics by enterprises reflects the willingness of enterprises to assume social responsibilities.
For electronics manufacturers, what they need to recycle is products that contain too much
metal. If there is a problem with recycling activities, it can seriously damage the environment
(Mishra, Kumar & Chan, 2012).

The object of reverse logistics of electronic products is mainly the products purchased by
customers, including the products with serious problems or returned products, which need to
be recycled. These products include not only recyclable parts, but also parts that are harmful
to the environment and cannot be recycled. Therefore, green reverse logistics can reduce
environmental pollution as much as possible. It is not simply abandoning the “cradle to grave”
industry model, but combining C2C with it to rationally implement the decision of reverse
logistics activities under the concept of environmental protection (Hazen, Wu, Cegielski,
Jones-Farmer & Hall, 2012). Because of the electronic product life cycle is shorter, the
number of the defective product, in the electronic product recycling the process, some of the
products and parts cannot be recycled is inevitable, in this case, the enterprise under the
condition of considering the cost, technology and other issues, should choose the best way to
handle with minimum damage to the environment, give them the processing of low pollution.
However, because the products contain mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead and other heavy
metal elements, the traditional incineration, crushing, burying and other processes have
caused serious harm to the environment. If the C2C model is realized in the product design
process and the recyclable materials are used to the maximum extent, enterprises can recycle
some components and reduce the adverse impact on the environment during product
recycling. Some products will release less pollution in the cradle-to-grave process after
proving to be of no use value. The effective combination of the two models will be more
suitable for the manufacturing activities of enterprises （Khan et al. 2017).

2.9 Determinants of recycling behavior

The reverse logistics system also requires consumers to take the initiative to recycle, but the
recycling rate of mobile communication products such as mobile phones continues to be low.
This is in sharp contrast to the rapidly expanding mobile communication market in recent
years. (Welfens, Nordmann&Seibt, 2016). In the study of drivers and barriers to recycling
behavior, Hornik et al. (1995) pointed out that in addition to environmental knowledge,
another important motivator is social impact. Research suggests that recycling can be a
motivating factor if it is considered desirable behavior within a social group or society. If
recycling is socially desirable, then there is social pressure to recycle. On the other hand, the
recycling infrastructure of mobile devices, such as the recycling bin of mobile devices, is also
an important factor affecting the recycling culture. Kollmuss and Agyeman(2002) believe
that the desire for comfort and convenience is a major driving force affecting consumption
patterns. Therefore, whether the recycling infrastructure is easy to use and whether it causes
high recycling costs for consumers are also key factors in determining the recycling behavior.

12
Another obstacle to recycling for mobile devices connected to the recycling infrastructure is a
certain mistrust created by the opacity of the recycling process. People are afraid that others
will access their personal data through their old mobile phones, thus causing an invasion of
personal privacy. Consequently, they prefer to keep their old mobile phones. In the meantime,
because of the small size of mobile devices, consumers are more likely to store their unused
phones at home than to recycle them. In general, the social environment will be an important
factor if the recycling rate of mobile devices is to be increased, and a complete recycling
infrastructure system is necessary. At the same time, a social atmosphere encouraging
recycling will also promote the formation of recycling pressure at the social level, so as to
promote the recycling behavior of consumers (Welfens et al. 2016).

2.10 The research model

In order to more intuitively show the relevance between previous theories, based on the
theoretical framework obtained from literature review, the research model was established.
Figure 1 below illustrates the characteristics of a C2C strategy that is ideally closest to a
sustainable development model. Figure 2 takes the existing literatures and researches as the
benchmark, illustrates the challenges that enterprises may need to face in the implementation
of C2C strategy and the relevance between them.

Figure 1: The Ideal C2C hypothesis model

13
Figure 2: Conceptual framework

3. Methodology
This chapter introduces and demonstrates the research methods and designs used in this study.
The Methodology chapter further describes the data collection process and the selection tools
associated with it. In addition, it provides an operational method of turning theory into
practice, which lays the foundation for the collection of empirical materials. This chapter
concludes with the theory and argumentation of validity, reliability, and ethical
considerations of this study. A comprehensive description of theory and practice supports the
transparency and consistency of research, which guarantees the quality of research (Yardley,
2000).

3.1 Research design

This study has explored what is the current status of Mobile Communications Enterprise's
"cradle to cradle" strategy in China through the method of case study. Case study method
refers to the study based on a specific individual, community, phenomenon or subject. This

14
type of research extensively collects the related data for the detailed understanding, the
reorganization and the analysis research object. The subjects of case study could be
individuals, or individual groups or institutions. Case study method is a very popular and
widely used research design in business research, which focuses on the complexity and
particularity of cases (Bryman& Bell, 2014). The research object selected in this study
belongs to a typical or representative case. As a leading private enterprise in China and a
large multinational company, Huawei can represent a typical operation mode organized by
large companies in Chinese commercial society.

3.1.1 Case background

Huawei is the world's leading provider of ICT (information and communication)
infrastructure and smart terminals, and is committed to bringing the digital world to everyone,
every family, every organization, and building a smart world of Internet of Everything. In
2014, Huawei launched a green recycling operation for used mobile phones. By setting up
recycling networks in various countries, recycling of used mobile phones in consumers' hands,
and giving mobile phones a new life, thereby realizing recycling of resources and promoting
the development of circular economy.At present, Huawei has carried out green recycling
activities in 8 countries including China, India and Thailand, and has set up more than 190
collection points. Consumers can check the nearest recycling outlets through Huawei's
official website. Consumers can deliver any brand of used mobile phones to recycling outlets.
Huawei will collect the used mobile phones at each collection point for free and hand them
over to internationally renowned recycling manufacturers to maximize the recycling value of
used mobile phones.Through the implementation of the “cradle to cradle” circular economy
practice, Huawei has argued that they have increased the proportion of product reuse and
reduced the environmental impact of waste (Huawei, 2014).

3.2 Research approach

Hyde (2000) believes that there are two ways to obtain knowledge, inductive reasoning and
deductive reasoning. He pointed out that inductive reasoning is a “theoretic construction
process”, by starting the investigation with observations, and through these observations to
try to establish a generalization of the investigation phenomenon.
The researchers opted to use qualitative research design and inductive approach to
investigate the case study. Qualitative research is characterized by exploratory, diagnostic,
and predictive characteristics. It does not pursue certain conclusions, but only understands
where the problem is, understands the situation, and then gets a perceptual understanding
(Bernard, 2013). Since the purpose of this research is to investigate the challenges for
Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing C2C strategy, which the
challenges have not been explored in the previous literature. Researchers have summarized
the challenges as new findings after collecting the data. Thus, the most suitable research

15
method for this study is inductive method. On the other hand, this study is not aiming on
finding the perfect solution to C2C implementation challenges, but aiming on finding out
general direction of the problem for future researches. Therefore, qualitative research is more
suitable for this study to have a general understanding of C2C implementation challenges for
the mobile communication industry in China.

3.3 Sampling type

The most commonly applied form of sampling for purposive samples is non- probability
sampling (Guest, Bunce& Johnson, 2006). and researchers intend to proceed the snowball
sampling of non-probability sampling. In this sampling method, the researchers first
contacted a small group of people related to the research topic and then used these people’s
networks to connect with others (Bryman& Bell, 2014). Authors contacted a senior
management of Huawei, and through him, researchers contacted 6 department heads of
relevant C2C departments. Also, authors contacted another China telecom employee, and
then researchers got the contact information of the two interviewees.

3.3.1 Sampling frame and sample selection

As one of the largest domestic equipment manufacturers in China's communications industry,
Huawei is also the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world (IDC, 2019). As an
organization with a large resource, Huawei has a need and has developed a C2C strategy to
improve the recycling rate of electronic products. Therefore, for the topic of this research,
Huawei has a lot of experience and knowledge to be tapped. However, Huawei's experience
is limited to internally- how an individual company designs products to increase its
recyclability. Since Huawei is not a professional recycling company, therefore, from a
external perspective, Huawei lacks relevant knowledge on how the e-waste recycling system
operates throughout the industry.
In view of this situation, China Telecom as one of Huawei’s crucial partners, it has also
been added as one of the respondents. China Telecom Group Co., Ltd. is a large-scale state-
owned communication enterprise and central enterprise established in accordance with the
People's Republic of China's telecommunications system reform plan. It is China's largest
fixed-line and data communication operator and the third largest mobile communication
operator. China's fixed-line and fixed-line broadband market share exceeds 50%, and has the
world's largest fixed-line and data communication network, covering the entire urban and
rural areas, reaching all over the world. China Telecom also acts as an agent for major mobile
phone brands in China, and sells mobile phones at the same time as the "mobile phone trade-
in" business. Responsible for handling the recycling of various brands of used mobile phones,
with more experience in electronic waste recycling (Ctsi.com.cn., 2019).

16
3.3.2 Sample background
The following table introduces the basic information of participants to prove that they have special
industry experience which is make them valuable to be interviewed. Overall, all of the participants
are males and come from China. Due to ethical considerations, the job information of participants
has been blurred, but the job nature remains the same.

17
3.4 Data collection
In order to collect the data, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with six
respondents at Huawei's employee training base in Shanghai, China. The researchers then
went to the Shanghai branch of China telecom to conduct semi-structured interviews with
two China telecom employees. Each participant was interviewed individually by the
researchers. All of the interviews have been face-to-face and the average interview time was
one hour.

3.4.1 Date Source-Primary and Secondary Data collecting

Data can be collected in two different ways, primary and secondary. Primary data is usually
collected in the form of information that researchers can directly provide, such as inquiries,
focus groups and observations (Ghauri and Grønhaug ， 2005). Secondary data refer to
existing studies, i.e. collect information and knowledge from previously written studies in
order to analyze the data collected for other purposes. (Appannaiah, Reddy &Ramanath,
2009). In this study, researchers collected secondary data from Huawei's annual sustainable
development report in order to have a preliminary understanding of the company's current
situation and background. Based on that, researchers then designed a semi-structured
interview in order to collect the primary data for current study case- Huawei Company. The
secondary data has been used as the comparison reference value of the primary data, so as to
establish a new C2C theoretical discovery.

3.4.2 Semi-structured interview

Interviews provide effective and reliable information and are an effective way to enter social
networks (Sinding& Aronson, 2003). To conduct this study and generate valid data, this
study has taken qualitative interviews, which is semi-structured interview (Rubin & Rubin,
1995). In qualitative interviews, “talking” is usually encouraged, so that the researcher can
gain a deeper understanding of what the respondents think is important and relevant, and the
researchers will get richer and more detailed answers (Bryman& Bell, 2011). Semi-structured
interviews refer to informal interviews based on interview outlines (Bryman& Bell,
2011).This method has only a rough basic requirement for the respondent's conditions and the
questions to be asked. The interviewer can flexibly make the necessary adjustments based on
the actual situation of the interview. There are no specific requirements for the way and order
of questions, the way of interviewee answers, the way of records, and the time and place of
the interviews. But in general, all pre-designed questions will be asked (Bryman& Bell, 2011).
In a semi-structured interview, a guide that questions and topics that must be covered.
Interviewers have some discretion about the order in which questions are asked, but questions
are standardized. When researchers want to delve into a topic and thoroughly understand the
answers provided, they usually use semi-structured interviews (Harrell & Bradley, 2009).

18
This study used the semi-structured interviews in the qualitative data collection method to
interview both Huawei and China Telecommunications’ managers. In this study, semi-
structured interviews did not prevent researchers from asking more questions based on
participants' responses to get more detailed information. At the same time, designing a certain
number of questions in advance can help control the overall rhythm of the interview and
prevent off-center thinking.

3.5 Ethical and procedural considerations

When conducting any type of research, ethical issues can occur at several different levels, and
if people are included, the situation will be even more complicated. Considering ethical
issues and sensitivity to the environment improves the quality of research (Yardley, 2000).
The relaxed environment is beneficial. It is easier for respondents to tell their true thoughts.
In order to ensure privacy, the interviews for Huawei has took place at Huawei's internal staff
training base. At the same time, the interviews for China Telecommunications Corporation
has took place at its branch office in Shanghai. Both of them are relatively closed and quiet
private spaces. Ethical aspects need to be considered, one of which is anonymity and
confidentiality (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Therefore, before the interview, researchers have
told the participants that they would be anonymous and the whole process would be recorded
and transcribed. Interviews have been conducted only with the consent of the participants. If
they do not want to answer certain questions, they can refuse, and the participants can
terminate the ongoing visit at any time. Given that participants have the right to know
(Andersson, Shivarajan&Blau, 2005). The researchers have also informed the participants
what the interview would be used for and what is the purpose of this interview.

3.6 Data analysis

First of all, given that all interviews with Huawei in this interview are conducted in Chinese,
we will translate the audio recording of the interview into text and then translate it into
English. It is important to prepare qualitative data before starting the analysis. This includes
some form of transcription, such as recorded in interviews (Greener, 2008). Next, we will
read the recorded text materials repeatedly, identify the categories in the transcribed text, and
use concept as a specific code to classify the interview contents according to different
concepts. In other words, similar interview contents are grouped into the same concept as a
category for easy analysis. As researchers review the data collected, repeated ideas, concepts
or elements become apparent, and marked by code (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). The code is
described as a word or phrase that represents the longer part of the text in symbolic or visual
terms (Bryman& Bell, 2014). As more data is collected and reviewed, the code can be
divided into concepts and then classified (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). Open question coding
usually requires repeated reading of respondents' response texts and forming different themes
in their answers (Bryman& Bell, 2014).

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 3.7 Operationalization
This section build the operationalization aim to define abstract concepts, make theoretical
concepts clear and measurable, and then understand them through empirical observation
(Campbell, 1957).This study conceptualizes the factors influencing and implementing the
C2C strategy, and designs corresponding interview questions for each concept.

3.7.1 Huawei Company

Concept Sub-concept Conceptual defination Questions

C2C and LCA Eco-efficiency Increasing maximum value
with minimal resource
utilization and minimal
pollution (Huesemann,
2004).
Do you think your
company's C2C strategy
includes the pursuit of
ecological efficiency?
Why?

Complementar LCA Reduce the negative How do you see the

ity of C2C and environmental footprint of
LCA human activities,
increasing the relative
environmental
sustainability of products
(Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).
difference between LCA
and C2C? What is the
relationship between the
two concepts?

C2C Upcycle Braungart and McDonough How is the product

(2013) redefine business recreated after the product
models with open and is recycled in your
innovative thinking, and company's c2c program?
only by people-oriented
manufacturing can develop
C2C products in a real
sense.

Defects of EPEA The existing C2C authority Does your company have
C2C still has some any C2C certification?
evaluation imperfections, which leads What do you think of the
existing C2C rating
mechanism to errors in the final
agencies?
evaluation results
(Toxopeus,
DeKoeijer&Meij, 2015).

Material Product Composite materials are generally
not capable of continuous
composition complexity recycling …(but)some products rely
on the properties of composites and
alloys (Song et al. 2009).
How do your C2C products
solve the problem of
composite material
recycling?

20
Reverse Design for Proper management of Does your company have
logistics disassembly material flow will require disassembly design for
the dismantling and C2C products? Why is
recycling of products and that?
materials (Reijnders,
2008).

C2C and Flow rate in C2C's pursuit of more How long is the cycle of
Circular the closed cycles without considering your company's c2c
economy loop the service life of products products? What is the
will lead to further overall resource savings
acceleration of linear associated with developing
resource flow (selling more a C2C product chain?
and more effective
products), resulting in very
limited saving of total
resources (DE Pauw et al.
2016).
Biological cycle Biological at the end of its life cycle, How do you think about
and Technical cycle can safely return to the biodegradable cycle in
cycle biosphere to provide C2C strategy?
nutrients for
(micro)biological life
without waste (Mestre&
Cooper, 2017).
Biological cycle Technical The use and conversion of How do you think about
and Technical cycle materials and energy technical cycle in C2C
cycle and/or technologies and the strategy?
optimization of their design
to the highest possible
level of efficiency
(Mestre& Cooper, 2017).
Table 2: Operationalization- Huawei Company

3.7.2 China Telecommunications Corporation

Concept Sub-concept Conceptual defination Questions

C2C Upcycle Braungart and McDonough How is the recycled

(2013) redefine business electronic waste reused or
models with open and recreated?
innovative thinking, and only
by people-oriented
manufacturing can develop
C2C products in a real sense.

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Material Product Composite materials are In the recycling process of
composition complexity generally not capable of electronic products, how
continuous does the recycling system
recycling …(but)some deal with composite
products rely on the materials?
properties of composites
and alloys (Song et al.
2009).

Determinants Recycling whether the recycling Whether China's

of recycling infrastructure
behavior
infrastructure is easy to use electronics recycling
and whether it causes high infrastructure is adequate
for consumers?
recycling costs for
consumers are also key
factors in determining the
recycling behavior
(Kollmuss&Agyeman,
2002).

Table 3: Operationalization- China Telecommunications Corporation

4. Empirical data

4.1 C2C and Circular economy

During the interview, the researchers found that not all the participants understood the C2C
strategy, but everyone knew what the circular economy is. Some participants to Huawei
believe that the key to a circular economy lies in how to design a product that causes as little
damage as possible during use. Because the circular economy has strict restrictions on raw
material resources, the company needs to reuse these resources to the maximum extent, and
the dissipation in the use process is irreversible. If the resources are depleted, it is necessary
to supplement them to complete the production process again. "Electronics is a high-cost
industry, and the resources needed to produce mobile devices like mobile phones are huge
and complex. For example, participant from the China telecom company pointed out that
some parts of an old mobile phone can be reused as maintenance parts. For example, the
phone camera can be removed, and it can be installed and used in any phone brand with the
same pixel. The circular economy is a worthy business model for maximizing the use of
energy and resources. From the perspective of environmental protection, circular economy
can also reduce the harm to the environment.The participants who work in technology, said
that batteries in electronic products will cause great harm to the environment if they are not
properly recycled, such as soil damage and water pollution. The circular economy advocated
by Huawei company takes the C2C strategy as the core goal to collect and reuse waste

22
batteries, so as to minimize pollution and prevent a large number of rare metals from being
wasted.

4. 2 C2C and LCA

4.2.1 comparison between C2C and LCA

Some participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy does not include the pursuit of
ecological efficiency. They think Huawei as a private enterprise may not have too much on
the consideration of eco-efficiency, the company must conform to the laws and regulations of
different regions firstly, and also through a variety of certification such as the European
Union certification etc., so the direction of the development of Huawei is mainly follow the
local laws and regulations as the driving force, and not as the purpose of reduce the pollution
or reducing the negative environmental impacts of human activities to improve eco-efficiency
deliberately .
Other participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy has fully reflected the concept of eco-
efficiency. Among them, participant C said that Huawei has a modular concept when
designing products. When a module of a product fails, it may be pulled out and replaced with
a new module. This design is to improve the Stability and maintainability of the products as
the subjective desire, and to pursuit the eco-efficiency objectively, because once scrapped, it
will not be the scrap of the entire machine but only the replacement of local instruments.
Other participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy has fully reflected the concept of eco-
efficiency. Among them, participant C said that Huawei has a modular concept when
designing products. When a module of a product fails, it may be pulled out and replaced with
a new module. This design is to improve the Stability and maintainability of the products as
the subjective desire, and to pursuit the eco-efficiency objectively, because once scrapped, it
will not be a scrap of the entire machine but only the replacement of some parts of the
machine. The second point is that the design concept of the equipment is a future-oriented
concept. The main purpose of the design is to make the company's products more competitive
and last longer, which reduce the impact on the environment objectively, because the product
continuity of Huawei is particularly strong, and the architecture's design of mobile phone and
software has been based on a sustainable guiding ideology. Participant E mentioned Huawei
Tiangang, the core chip of 5G base station. He said that compared with 3G4G, 5G is not only
the improvement of operation rate but also the improvement of materials for 5G equipment.
Besides, many software and hardware devices are completely different from those of 3G 20
years ago. This chip of Huawei Tiangang can make the whole size of the 5G base station
reduced by 55%, weight reduced by 23%, and the base station is a large power consumption,
the reduction of the size and weight means that the power consumption is also reduced, as
well as reduce the difficulty of the site deployment. "There will always be new technologies
or new products or new production chains to improve ecological efficiency, Making the
recycling rate as high as possible is the direction of our efforts," he said.

23
4.2.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA
Some participants said that C2C products are valuable and significant, even though the
products of C2C shorten the product life cycle and need a large number of funds to research
and to develop. The innovation of the mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and technology
is very fast, so technological innovation will lead to a result of the shortened life cycle,
which is also a meaningful process, otherwise, the electronics industry will be difficult to
develop. Participant B believes that innovation is a meaningful thing definitely. He noted
that Huawei spends 10 to 15 percent of its annual sales on innovation, and that Lenovo's 30
years of research and development might not match Huawei's one year. Huawei is already
investing heavily in innovation, ranking third globally. He said: "first of all, we need to
ensure that we continue to innovate in our major business areas. But innovation that does
not encourage big changes without understanding the reality of the situation. I think the
design of C2C is a very perfect state and Huawei has not reached it yet. Huawei has not yet
reached completely. Although Huawei attaches great importance to innovation, its business
trajectory still needs to be consistent with the current commercial society. Huawei
positioning is still a business company, I have to keep yourself alive, Huawei internal
sentence "we have to keep leading technology, but we have only half a step ahead without a
step leading technology", it means that Huawei all resources used in the process of
innovation needs to be the most efficient use of rather than spend a lot of money to develop
a market five years has any demand, this in Huawei company, this appears to be serious
waste of resources. This is also a serious waste of resources for Huawei. Huawei certainly
has a plan for its sustainable development. If Huawei wants to have a place in the global
industry, it must also bear the challenges from its peers in terms of ecology. Therefore,
when doing the whole design, even if it does not mention it, others will also mention it."
Participant A believes that the life of many products can be designed to a certain point in
time. The best design concept now is that all chips and all components have a life cycle. If
the life cycle is designed to a relatively uniform time point, the benefit of an enterprise will
be maximized. If a product is scrapped very early and its supporting products or other
products are scrapped very late, the investment will be huge and more manpower, material
resources and financial resources will be needed to deal with it. Participant D think C2C the
life cycle of C2C products will be shorter compared with traditional products, this is the
order of development of human civilization, is inevitable, because now technology is faster
and faster, the iteration of the mobile phone service life will be more and more short,
besides the software upgrade, the recycle ratio of hardware with the development of
technology will be more and more high, the aim of recycling are to reduce the economic
cost of the enterprise and to reduce the environmental costs.

Some participants think C2C products to shorten the product life cycle cost is unnecessary,
because when a product appears on the market needs certain cycle and validation to realize
the value of it, if ending its cycle blindly, which would not good for development, and
would create a huge waste. The premise of the innovation is economic value and social
value is proportional to price. Moreover, they emphasize that innovation is based on
customer demand, and its innovation must be to optimize the cost to make the product
stronger, and innovation is the ways rather than the goal. Participant F believes that the

24
enterprise should first consider whether the product can meet the market needs, the future
profit space of the product, use environmental protection materials as far as possible within
the allowable range of costs, and consider whether the cost of C2C is larger in the scheme
design, and the cost is within the acceptable range of the plan, so C2C will definitely be
used. "We have to make a trade off between the economic benefits and the environmental
ideals, so we use as many reusable materials as the cost of the product allows," he said.

4.3 C2C evaluation mechanism

Most of Huawei's interviewed employees believe that the C2C evaluation standards
adopted by foreign third-party organizations that are not local do not fit the actual situation
of Chinese enterprises. Some participants said that due to the imperfect environmental
protection system, the implementation of C2C strategy does not have a positive market
circumstances in China. However, C2C evaluation institutions often do not take these
factors into consideration, and then copy the standards from some developed countries for
evaluation. This makes Chinese enterprises in the C2C rating process often can only stay in
the basic level or even unable to obtain certification. However, participant B also said that
due to the particularity of the electronic industry, many domestic and foreign standard
systems are Shared. In this case, except for the problem of language translation, there is no
big deviation in the evaluation with foreign standards. "For example, Huawei's 3G and 4G
in mobile communications use the same standard as those in developed countries, there is
only the translation problem after they are implemented in China, which is called
international communication standard". Some participants to Huawei believe that the
emergence of third-party evaluation agencies is still a more objective and fair existence
than internal self-certification. Such existence is undoubtedly meaningful - "standards are
constantly adjusted to progress, standards are also updated in every iteration step, there is
never perfect standard, but justice and objectivity is the eternal truth". Since C2C is still a
new concept for Chinese enterprises, the emergence of evaluation institutions with relevant
certification qualifications at least sets a benchmark for entrepreneurs. In Huawei company,
usually within the company strategic objectives can be divided into three levels: "the
fundamental goal, the remarkable goal, and the unqualified goal". The fundamental goal
refers to the target that Huawei must achieve unconditionally. After the 'fundamental goal'
have been achieved, Huawei would put effort on the 'remarkable goal'. While the
'unqualified goal' means the goal that Huawei fails to achieve at present. Respondent E of
Huawei said, "Although C2C is still a unqualified goal for Huawei, with the progress of the
times, we must be gradually approaching the direction of the vision. We should never give
up our efforts to make the current unmet goals become the permanent cannot-met goals."
The emergence of C2C evaluation institutions will provide a guiding direction for
companies with the desire to implement C2C strategy, so that they will not always grope in
the dark.

Meanwhile, participants from China telecom company still hold a negative view. They
generally believe that evaluation, supervision and certification are highly specialized, and
the core of which lies in the talent reserve and the degree of perfection of system. As a

25
developing country, China cannot match the developed countries in terms of both talents
and system in environmental protection. Chinese existing evaluation system, due to
inherent defects such as profit distribution, is not as efficient as that of private enterprises.
On the other hand, the system of state regulators cannot keep pace with the times. And
some foreign regulators copy their standard to apply in the Chinese market will possibly
produce rejection reaction lead to some vacuum zone- "After all, the ultimate goal of
commercial enterprises is to be profitable, but the excessively high standard of C2C
evaluation institutions will cause a lot of extra costs for enterprises." In this case, the
existence of C2C evaluation agencies actually makes enterprises in the wait-and-see state
have withdrawn and restless mood, making them doubt whether such a high-standard
strategy is suitable for the actual condition of their companies.

4.4 Biological cycle and Technical cycle

All the participants generally agree that biological cycle is based on laws and regulations,
technology accumulation and reserve, and will be introduced when necessary (such as laws,
costs, etc.).

Referring to the recycling of products, participant A said that Huawei smart pv helped India
successfully connect its 300 MW power station to the grid. The project selected Huawei's full
series of 1500V smart pv solutions. After the grid connection, the power station operated
stably and generated more power than expected，it is expected to reduce carbon emissions
by 600,000 tons per year. In addition, many of the plastic shells used in some of the power
tools made by Huawei are recycled. Some plastic waste is dissolved into plastic particles for
reuse, and black rubber shell moulds are generated for reuse. For example, “we also put 20 or
30 years ago of the old base station, old items recycled into handicrafts in the Guangdong
exhibition hall has sold tickets on display.” Another technical cycle is the use of LTE (Long
Term Evolution), which is also modular in design, meaning that some (or even a lot) of
components can be reused. However, participant A also pointed out that the original mobile
phone may be used for seven or eight years, but now it is only used for three or five years, not
because the mobile phone hardware is no longer available, but because the software update is
too fast. F said the car industry is in transition, Beijing New Energy Automobile co., LTD has
begun to implement a comprehensive new energy strategy, Huawei used in ICT (Information
Communications Technology) in the field of Technology advantage, helping Beijing New
Energy Automobile Company Limited to build the next generation of intelligent electric car,
the ICT Technology and intelligent made car depth fusion, let artificial intelligence to the
public.

According to participant E, Huawei has established school-enterprise cooperation programs

with many universities and research institutes around the world, constantly absorbing many
external scientific research achievements to build its own technology reserve. For example, in
the past, most plastics were made without the intention of being recycled. Berkeley National
Laboratory has developed a recyclable plastic, a synthetic plastic that can be "assembled",

26
and can be transformed into other colors, shapes or other forms of new materials. The new
plastic is tentatively named Polyketene amine or PDK plastic. The plastic breaks down to the
molecular level and can be recycled, but for now PDK is only being made in the lab. In the
case of legal compliance, Huawei will choose the scheme with high reliability and relatively
low cost. Once a new proposal, as PDK has market demand, can be quickly commercialized.
Once traditional plastics are replaced by PDK, people will be able to recycle plastic products
more effectively in the future.

4.5 Design for disassembly

All participants of Huawei believe that disassembly design is important not only for the C2C
strategy, but also for the electronic products themselves. Participant D believes that the
design of detachable products is mainly driven by two aspects: first, the reduction of cost and
the improvement of reliability; second, the requirements from the industry and the country.
For example, the modular design makes the product only need to replace the problem module
after a fault occurs without causing the whole machine to be scrapped, thus saving the cost. In
terms of reliability, modularity keeps the problem in situ and limits the interaction between
electronic components to cause more faults, and then increasing the stability of equipment
and improving product quality. Product design philosophy should ensure that the product in
the market would have a certain profit, otherwise the product can not enter the
implementation stage. " We should use high technology and recyclable technology as much
as possible at an acceptable cost"- Said by Participant C. On the other hand, Huawei has
entrusted the waste products recycling work to professional recycling companies. If the
disassemble degree of Huawei's products is low, it will increase the work difficulty and
workload of the recycling company. Correspondly, the recycling service fee will also increase,
and Huawei will also bear the pressure from competitors in the industry. From the
perspective of environmental protection, the disassembly design also plays an important role
in the rate of recycling. Especially in the high-precision electronics industry, "A lot of
different materials are welded together on the same small circuit board, if without a
disassembly design, the recycling work would be very difficult." However, some participants
said that the disassembly design may not bring about the reduction of cost, even would
increase the production cost. In this case, the company may not add the disassembly design
into the product, at the same time, the degree of environmental protection would be reduced
in exchange for a higher profit margin.

4.6 Material composition

Many participants believe that the most difficult thing for recycling work is to create benefits;
the second thing is to meet the requirements of environmental protection; and almost all
recycling work is determined by costs and benefits. Participant A thinks that it is very
difficult for recycling to meet the environmental requirements, because environmental
requirements are very strict, and it is difficult for enterprises to make money. He said: "I used
to do semiconductor integrated circuit, if you put a chip or a complete environmental

27
protection circuit board to do the cost is very high, and, of course, from the perspective of
concept, discarded electronic products such as mobile phone needs to be done, to recycle the
material later are extracted and then recycled, this is the best ideal, of course, but there should
be new crafts and new technology, and to reduce the cost of recycling, materials research and
development is a big investment for a long period of work, but it is worth it, the cost of raw
materials it doesn't matter a bit high, but the recycling cost must be low." Participant C
indicates that only the gold, silver and copper in the circuit board and the gold in the hard
circuit board can be recycled, because the value of gold is relatively high, are the only
valuable things for waste products. For example, cemented carbide is mainly made of
tungsten carbide and rare metal cobalt, and its economic value and manufacturing cost are
relatively high. The recovery of tungsten and cobalt is a valuable recovery category. Most of
the problems are still cost issues, but to break through the cost problem still depends on
technical means. For example, a new chemical method or a new recycling crafts, with these
technologies later more recycling work can be better carried out.
Some participants said that the current technology is difficult to recycle alloys. participant E
said that many of Huawei's products are assembled. Huawei's composite materials suppliers
come from all over the world, such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, rather than
relying on their own R&D departments, such as LED screens that not produced by Huawei,
therefore,many composite materials support recycling now, and the composite materials that
not support recycling at current also can not support recycling in the future. For example,
magnesium and its alloys are easily recyclable metals, and all magnesium alloys currently
used can be recycled. Less than half of the magnesium is used in the die casting process for
forming, and the rest is wasted on the handles and runner, which can be recycled and reused
in the industrial cycle. An example cited by participant G is that telecom comprehensively
upgrades optical fiber, and the returned telephone lines of telecom operators have copper
cables. The outer insulation rubber skin is peeled off, and the plastic skin and copper wire are
recycled separately. They are weighed and sold according to different materials, and the
electronic version of mobile phone is recycled separately from the glass screen. There are
several ways to dispose of the remaining waste parts, one is landfill, the other is incineration.
Generally, domestic and international disposal methods are both these two ways, and the
method of landfill is usually used for alloy. Waste incineration and landfill is not only
because the recycling price is too high, but because the waste is useless, itself is a waste, like
many alloys can not be purified, the use of landfill means.

4.7 The system of reverse logistics

Some participants believe that Huawei has a basic reverse logistics system, including
customer after-sales service system, return and replacement of goods and warranty period.
"Huawei supports seven days of free returns and replacements for phones and tablets."
Participant C said. On the other hand, Huawei also invests a lot of resources in the recycling
of waste electronic products. Huawei's e-commerce site offers three ways to recycle phones,
and evaluates used phones to give consumers vouchers of equivalent value after the recycling.
Consumers can also find the nearest mobile phone recycling point through Huawei's official

28
website. "Huawei always promotes battery recycling to consumers. We recycle not only our
own brand of used batteries, but also other brands of mobile phones and batteries. I believe
this is not a purely commercial activity." Participant B, an employee in Huawei's overseas
sales department. However, Huawei's recycling strategy does not only refer to C2C mode,
and there are still a few unrecyclable e-waste to be disposed of in landfill. In response,
Huawei employees said it was an inevitable result of the particularity of the industry. "For a
small amount of waste that cannot be recycled, landfill treatment will be conducted in
accordance with local environmental laws and regulations." However, some participants of
Huawei believe that the "trade-in" business of mobile phones is still a commercially-driven
promotion.

China telecom, as the agent customer of Huawei, is also included in the reverse supply chain,
such as the "zero inventory" policy. China telecom can return unsold phone inventory to
Huawei, which Huawei will resell or recycle the products. This allows resources to be more
efficiently allocated rather than wasted. China Telecom participants believes that this can
reflect the core concept of C2C "up-cycle". "Truly people-oriented design is not necessarily
be an invention, but also could be a shift in thinking mode. If the phones in stock would not
be recalled by Huawei, we may never sell them, and the final destiny of these phones will be
recycling in waste bin. But the advent of zero inventory allows these phones to be delivered
to people who really need them, the policy puts the goods into a more valuable cycle.

4.8 Determinants of recycling behavior

Participants to China telecom believe that Chinese existing mobile equipment recycling
infrastructure is not complete, some companies set up mobile phone recycling sites mainly in
Chinese megacities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. “It is a pity that the recycling rate of waste
electronic products in China is still low”. Due to China's vast land area and large population,
even the areas with electronic equipment recycling facilities cannot fully meet the recycling
needs of local consumers. On the other hand, the society has not formed the culture of
recycling electronic devices. In additionally, consumers pay more attention to the protection
of personal privacy, especially in recent years, privacy disclosure scandals occur frequently.
The participants from China telecom believe that consumers will not actively recycle used
electronic devices if recycling behavior does not bring obvious benefits to consumers.

To this end, one of the participant from Huawei introduced that in order to promote
consumers' initiative in recycling, Huawei set up as many recycling methods as possible and
increased mobile phone recycling sites. However, due to the limited budget, Huawei could
not invest too much cost in the recycling system. "Huawei company still mainly focus on the
commercial profit, so most of the budget has been spent on the science research and
technology development" Despite all that, Huawei still holds a rigorous attitude toward
recycling. The company has strict privacy protection for the recycled second-hand electronic
devices. They will professionally delete the data of the recycled devices and record the whole
cleaning process to ensure the security of customers' privacy data. Huawei even to provide

29
professional door-to-door recycling service, in order to reduce the cost of recycling for
consumers.

5. Discussion

5.1 The system of reverse logistics

From the case of Huawei, the researchers found that from the perspective of operability, it is
necessary to carry out reverse logistics simultaneously with C2C and C2G. Under the current
condition of science and technology, the general development level of the electronic
communication industry can not support a complete C2C closed cycle. For the e-waste that
cannot enter the C2C closed cycle, enterprises also have the responsibility to send them into a
C2G linear flow chain for proper disposal. As the public facilities for recycling mobile
devices are still not perfect in China, Huawei, as a private enterprise, spontaneously
established many electronic product recycling sites, which helped improve the recycling
system of the whole society. Regardless of users send waste electronic products to public
recycling sites or recycle them at Huawei's internal recycling sites, it will play a positive role
in environmental protection. However, from the perspective of C2C strategy for Huawei,
consumers must send waste products into the recycling station set by Huawei to truly realize
the reverse logistics. E-waste that does not enter the company's internal recycling system is
also the resource that cannot enter the C2C closed loop. The establishment of reverse
logistics system helps to bring more consumers into the closed loop of traceability, and the
value of consumers will still exist after the purchase of products. Huawei's various after-sales
services enable the company to retrieve a lot of potential resources (such as rare metals)
through the cohesion of consumers. However, as participants have mentioned many times in
the interviews, the recycling technology in the electronic industry is not completed, and there
are still many parts of the waste electronic that have to be abandoned or burned. In this
situation, C2G strategy could help enterprises better fulfill their social responsibilities and
ensure social equity. Because C2G stressed the importance of environmental protection and
prevented companies from randomly discharging pollutants. This behavior should not be
regarded as giving up on C2C, but should be regarded as unremitting efforts towards C2C.

5.1.1 Material composition

First of all, according to the views of participants in Huawei on alloy recycling, Cost-
effectiveness should be the biggest problem faced by enterprises in the implementation of
C2C, that is, enterprises will refuse to recycle these alloys due to the high recycling cost and
low recycling value in the face of recyclable metals. Huawei believes that even if there is a
material that can replace the alloy material, such as making the circuit board completely
environmentally friendly, the cost is unacceptable to the enterprise. They support the
investment of a lot of money to develop new processes and technologies, but cannot accept
the high cost of recovery. For valuable metals and alloys, such as gold, silver, hard alloys and
magnesium alloys, where the recovery value is high and the cost is low, recovery is much
easier. Second, the alloy is a hard to disassemble synthetic metal, the alloy is not like paper

30
can achieve 100% recovery, it is very difficult to recycle, and the recovery rate is very low.
Demand for alloy and handling is a global problem, such as mobile phones of the precision
machinery have complicated alloy composition, especially the alloy that combine with a
variety of chemicals and metals, even the alloy contains the valuable metals, because the
technology can not reach currently and in the future, these complex alloy always have no way
to recycle, the only way is the landfill. Although the alloy that can be filled has reached the
standard of legal landfill, and huawei seems to be satisfied with meeting the environmental
requirements of landfill as the only way for them to bury the alloy that cannot be recycled at
all. They thought that it is already difficult to treat the alloys in a way that meets
environmental requirements, but that the landfill does not appear to be effective in reducing
environmental impacts.

5.1.2 Determinants of recycling behavior

From the responses of the China telecom participants, the researchers learned that China's e-
waste recycling rate is still very low, which is largely influenced by consumers' inactive
recycling habits. But from a positive point of view, it also shows that e-waste recycling still
has great potential in China. If companies like Huawei can influence consumers' recycling
habits with dedicated actions, then a lot of resources (such as metals) will return to the
production chain. Participants to China telecom company said that mobile phone users
usually have low trust in recycling companies, mainly due to concerns about personal
information leakage. This idea is also mentioned in the theory section. Researchers obtained
the same information from the two data collection methods, which can prove that there is a
direct correlation between the degree of users' trust in mobile device recycling unit and users'
recycle behaviors. From Huawei's responses, we know that Huawei is very strict about user
privacy protection. In other words, if consumers send mobile phones to Huawei's recycling
site or adopt Huawei's recycling service, they can ensure privacy and security to a greater
extent. In the long run, such enterprises have the opportunity to gradually gain more trust
from consumers, and then cultivating consumers' recycling habits. On the other hand,
participants from China telecom indicated that another driving force of consumer recycling
behavior comes from interest impact. At this point, Huawei's campaign to encourage
consumers to recycle used mobile phones by giving out vouchers is seen as an effective
marketing model. Second, Huawei provides a variety of recycling ways for consumers to
choose the way they prefer. This special service increases the convenience for consumers to
recycle mobile phones, and it is also could be a reference practice to increase the consumers’
motivation for recycling.

5.2 Circular economy

The core of Circular economy is to slow down the flow rate of the closed loop. It should not
rush for quick results and instant benefits, and encourage innovation, but it should not
encourage useless or meaningless innovation, but encourage valuable innovation. Huawei
encourages innovation and would spend a large amount of money on innovation every year.
However, Huawei emphasizes the efficient use of resources and will not invest a large

31
amount of money to develop a product that has no demand in the market for a long time,
which Huawei believes is a waste. Therefore, Huawei's C2C strategy attaches importance to
eco-effectiveness. Most participants in this interview believe that Huawei attaches great
importance to ecological efficiency. Only a small number of participants believe that the C2C
strategy does not include ecosystem efficiency, and this small number of participants work in
the technology department, so their answers are not of great reference value. For example,
module design and reduction of the size of 5G base station are all manifestations of
ecological efficiency. Some participants support the need to shorten the life cycle of C2C
products, and that it is valuable; While some participants object that the life cycle of C2C
products needs to be shortened, which is meaningless. These embody the contradiction
between "slow the loop strategies" and "close the loop strategies" in many cases. Proponents
argue that investing in innovation is key, while opponents argue that products need a long
cycle to prove their value and that ending early is wasteful. C2C is also a circular economy,
but Huawei's circular economy also emphasizes LCA, and the core of LCA is eco- efficiency,
so C2C should give consideration to eco-efficiency while advocating eco-effectiveness.

5.2.1 Technical cycle

Huawei converted light, enabling India to produce more electricity than expected a year and
reduce its carbon emissions by a significant amount; Huawei has converted electric energy,
provided ICT technology for automobile companies, built electric vehicles, made efforts for
zero emission, and made artificial intelligence benefit society. Huawei is always ready for
material conversion, cooperating with global universities, absorbing foreign technology
reserves, and learning about PDK biodegradable plastics. Huawei has also implemented a
disassemble design. However, Huawei has not implemented the technology cycle in a strict
sense. PDK biodegradable plastics are limited to laboratory research and will only be
invested and popularized when there is market demand. They still produce electronic waste,
like alloys are disposed in landfills. Huawei spends a huge amount of money on research and
development every year, ranking the third in the world, so it supports the luxury of using
materials to innovate. However, the staff of Huawei's R&D department said that Huawei only
takes half a step ahead of technology instead of one step ahead of technology, which shows
that Huawei's innovation is a slow process. Huawei does not innovate aggressively, so it
lengthens the life cycle of products and slows down the time for product innovation and
update. However, as for the design of durability, Huawei believes that it is not because the
hardware of electronic products cannot be durable, but because the speed of software
upgrading is too fast. Therefore, Huawei has not implemented "slow the loop strategy" in a
strict sense. They didn't implement radical innovation solutions like Fairphone, because
Huawei believes that all resources need to be used efficiently and in line with the current
business rhythm, and Fairphone is innovating regardless of cost. As for biological cycle, at
present, Huawei seems like that they do not have any biological cycle design.

32
5.3 C2C evaluation mechanism
For most Chinese enterprises, the actual effect of C2C certification is less than what they
expect. The reason is the national conditions difference and commercial market environment
gap. As Chinese leading electronics and technology industry giant, Huawei still feels strict
about the standards of C2C evaluation institutions, thus the evaluation institutions will be
more daunting to other small and medium-sized enterprises with less resources and strength.
In order to let the third-party certification playsthe biggest role, we must also get the support
from the government. The current issue in China is that the social recycling system is not
perfect. If the evaluation authorities do not consider the actual situation and just put all kinds
of pressure on enterprises, it only will make C2C become more unrealistic. No business could
live in a vacuum, which means every companies must be supervised by the local government
before they accepting the supervision from a third party. If there is a big gap between the
current government policy and the standards set by the evaluation authority, it is less likely
that the enterprise will also meet the standards of the certification authority while complying
with local laws and regulations. However, for those entrepreneurs who are committed to the
implementation of C2C strategy, the C2C certification mechanism still has guiding
significance. Taking Huawei as an example, although the research results do not show that
Huawei is in a highly C2C development mode, the C2C strategy is still an important
development direction of the company. In this case, the evaluation authority is necessarily
needed as a guider. Then the all-round talent reserve and technical support are also places
where C2C certification mechanism need to make continuous progress. Only a sounder and
practical C2C standard can better help the sustainable development of enterprises.

5.4 Sustainable Mode of telecommunications industry

Combined with the ideal C2C model built in the theoretical framework, the researchers made
new discoveries after the interviews, and thus designed a new model. Figure 3 below shows a
possible model for sustainable development in the telecommunications industry. The
researchers believe that in Chinese current electronic communication industry, companies
need to consider with its actual situation, and then implement the C2C mode with the design
paradigm of C2G as a whole strategy in order to improve the strategic feasibility. This is
mainly because of the limitations of technology, which makes it is difficult to completely
recycle the wastes in high-tech industries. In order to guarantee the commercial value and
ecological efficiency of products at the same time, when designing the mixed strategy
combining C2C and C2G, it is necessary to increase LCA to ensure the rationality of product
life cycle and slow down the velocity in the closed loop of C2C. Although the focus of this
mixed strategy is not on prolonging the life cycle of the product, LCA still needs to play a
regulatory role to supervise the stability of the product and the rationality of the use of
resources.

33
5.4.1 Design for disassembly
In the process of product design, Huawei has taken into account the concept of modularity.
Although Huawei's subjective intention is to improve its competitiveness, product quality and
reduce costs, it has objectively improved the ecological efficiency and brought a positive
impact on the environment. When Huawei designed modules with disassemble performance
at the very beginning, and when it recycled and reused the disassembled parts, it took the
value of disassembly modules as the standard to recycle. In other words, economic benefit is
the main driving force for Huawei to design disassemble modules and improve disassemble
efficiency. In order to facilitate maintenance, and in case of machine failure, Huawei can
scrap the machine partially rather than scrap it completely, modules not only save costs, but
also extend the product life cycle, make the product last longer, and improve the ecological
efficiency of the product. Valuable module according to the strategy implementation of the
C2C recycling, if there is no disassemble design, the parts that not easy to disassemble will be
burning or landfill, can cause environmental pollution and the waste of raw materials, and
with modular design, can be better C2G, reduced the negative effects on the environment, so
the modular design also contributed to the environmental sustainability. In the end, Huawei
promoted the development of social benefits with the purpose of promoting economic
benefits. In addition, Huawei makes disassembled plastic into the handicrafts, and process an
exhibition to the public to cultivate the public's awareness of environmental protection and
recycling, which is also conducive to the company's recycling of valuable parts from
customers.

Figure 3

34
6. Conclusion
So far, the model of circular economy has evolved into a more sustainable alternative to the
linear economy. As a paradigm of circular economy, C2C design has been adopted by many
companies with vision and strength. This kind of design requires the company to have
technical cycle design at the beginning of product design, and may cause the shortening of
product life cycle, so as to ensure that the product can be recycled completely instead of
causing recycling difficulties after being worn out. However, it is very important to grasp the
intermediate degree. How to avoid blind "planned obsolescence" to realize the truly valuable
C2C strategy requires LCA supervision. Therefore, the C2C design considering the product
life cycle is the ideal C2C design.
For the electronics industry with low recycling rate and high pollution, Huawei still faces
many challenges in adopting the C2C strategy. C2C strategy requires the company to have a
mature reverse logistics system, and the source of reverse logistics is the products that
consumers need to recycle. However, Huawei says the recycling rate of electronics products
has been low, and the serious problems it faces in the process come from alloy recycling.
Because alloys are so difficult to disassemble, they usually go from cradle to grave. On the
other hand, the components of electronic products that can be recycled to meet the standards
of recycling and re-creation are composed of pure and valuable materials. Therefore, the key
to recycling and re-creation lies in the design of materials that can be easily disassembled to
facilitate recycling. Of course, these materials must also have some commercial value,
otherwise the company is not willing to recycle the materials even if they are easy to
disassemble. Another challenge is the mismatch between C2C evaluation mechanism and
China's mobile communications industry. The majority of participants felt stressed and
overwhelmed by the regulation imposed by the evaluation mechanism. The possible reasons
include the lack of talents who know the local market conditions, and the lack of coordination
and cooperation with government departments, which leads to the imbalance of standard
formulation and the low enthusiasm of companies to choose the C2C strategy.

7. Recommendation for company

Corporate management must assume corporate social responsibility (CSR), although the core
is still for the purpose of commercial profit, still need to include the consideration of eco-
efficiency. Therefore, enterprises pursuing sustainable development need to consider how to
achieve a balance of three aspects and how to maximize profits without creating excessive
negative environmental externalities. This requires companies to shift to a more positive
mindset to face these challenges. The next step of the enterprise implementing the C2C
strategy needs to consider the life cycle assessment(LCA) . In order not to affect the redesign
and reuse of products by the next generation, the company should design the closed loop so
that electronic products can be used more rationally. The specific implementation includes
planned obsolescence of C2C products, which should be combined with LCA. Take
Fairphone as an example, when extending the product life cycle, the scrapped products
should also have access to the C2C recycling system. The companies would re-create and

35
reuse valuable, easily recyclable metals, But for complex alloys that cannot be recycled, the
companies should extend their life cycle as long as possible, then dispose of e-waste properly
at the end of its life. In this way, the possibility of reaching the sustainable mode of the
mobile communications industry is increased. A new ecological revolution is under way, and
companies with C2C ambitions should take a longer view. Although investors may face the
challenge of large upfront investment and small return, once successful innovation mode
emerges, it will have great positive significance for the company itself and even the progress
of the whole industry.

8. Limitation and Suggestions for future research

The researchers only interviewed six Huawei staff members. For future research, the
researchers should interview Huawei staff members from more departments. Since the
executives interviewed in this research are mostly focused on the technical level, researchers
should interview more staff from different departments to improve the richness of answers. In
addition, researchers found that changes in government policies have a great impact on the
implementation of C2C strategy by Chinese companies, so it is meaningful to interview more
people from government departments.
This time, the interviewees only work in one city -- Shanghai. Since the policies of each city
are different, it is meaningful to conduct interviews in different cities. Taking different cities
as control variables may make the answers to questions more comprehensive.
On the other hand, most of the interviewees are employees of Huawei, who may lack
objectivity or be unable to answer all the questions in interviews in order to maintain the
company's reputation and image. In the future in-depth investigation, quantitative research
should be added to find more objective research objects to increase the credibility of the
results.

36
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Appendix I: Interviews transcript in Original language
(Chinese)
关于 C2C 和 LCA
A 和 D 没有详细回答我们的问题，他们认为追求生态效率和华为公司并没有直接的联
系。其中 D 表示，华为公司从人力管理，财经管理和供应链管理都充分体现了生态效
率的这个概念。但华为是一个高门槛轻资产的科技公司，它不自己生产手机，所以是
没什么污染的，关于环境方面应该由各个供应商来负责。
B 认为公司的 c2c 战略不包括对生态效率的追求，他表示，华为作为一个民营企业可
能不会做太多关于这方面的一个考虑，华为的公司首先是肯定符合各个地区不同的法
律法规的并且也通的过各种认证比如欧盟认证等，所以我认为华为的发展方向主要是
顺着当地的法律法规为驱动力，而不会因为它自己对生态的各种理解来做这个事。因
为对民营企业来说可能是一种浪费，更多的是按照现有的游戏规则在走。
C 举了一个研发的例子，他们当时做产品设计的时候有一个模块化的理念是当在做一
个产品的某一个模块发生故障以后，我可能就把它拔下来换一个新的模块上去，这主
观愿望上是提高产品的稳定性和可维护性，客观上对生态效率和的追求，因为一旦报
废，将不是整台机器的报废而只是局部器械的替换。第二点是，它的设备是一种面向
未来的设计理念，这个主管目的还是为了让公司的产品更具有竞争力，更能维持的更
久，客观上至少是减少了对环境的影响，因为华为的产品延续性特别强，像别的手机
和软件设计的架构时，就已经是基于一个可持续性的指导思想做的了。
E 提到，理论上，5G 是比 3G4G 传输速率更高的网络体系，实现 5G 设备的很多的材
料都已经进步了。5G 是更高频谱更高速率的通讯，很多软硬件设备相比于 20 年前做
3G 的时候完全不一样，5G 比 3G4G 无论是体积大小还是运行速率都强太多。提高生
态效率的新的技术新的产品或者新的生产链一直会有，这是他们努力的方向：把回收
的比例做的尽可能高。
A 表示其实很多产品的寿命是可以设计到某一个时间点的，其实现在最好的设计理念，
所有的芯片所有的组件都是有生命周期的，如果把生命周期设计到相对统一的时间点
对一个企业效益是最大化的，如果一个产品报废很早其他产品都报废很晚那投入就巨
大了，所以产品设计的考虑 C2C 不是最关键的。
B 认为 c2c 产品要付出产品生命周期缩短的代价，这是有意义的。移动互联网，人工
智能也好，技术的革新非常快，所以技术的创新会造成生命周期的缩短，那也是一个
有意义的必经过程，否则电子行业将很难发展下去。首先创新肯定是有意义的事情，
华为在创新上面的投入是年销售的百分之十到百分之十五，举个例子，联想公司 30 年
的研发费用可能都抵不上华为一年的研发开销。华为在创新上面的投入已经是非常非
常大的了，我印象中是全球排名第三的。首先第一点我们要保证主航道，也就是主要
的业务方向上做不断的创新，第二点，华为的创新一定是在它的航道上进行创新，而
且在没有了解实际的真实情况下不鼓励巨大变革的创新。我认为 c2c 的设计是一个非
常完美的状态华为现在还没有达到。华为虽然重视创新，但是它的商业轨迹还是要和

43
当下的商业社会节拍吻合。华为的定位仍然是个商业公司，我必须保证自己活下来，
华为内部有句话“我们一定要保持技术领先，但我们一定只领先半步而不会领先技术一
步”，意思就是说华为在创新过程中所用到的所有资源都需要得到最高效的利用而不是
不计成本的来开发一个市场上五年内都没有任何需求的事情。在华为公司看来这也是
对资源的严重浪费。华为对自己的可持续发展是肯定有规划的，华为若想在全球行业
内有一席之地，当然包括生态方面要能承受来自同行的挑战，所以华为在做整个设计
的时候就算自己不提出来，别人也会提。
C 认为如果 c2c 产品要付出产品生命周期缩短的代价是没必要的，产品出来以后需要
一定的周期利用，验证，来实现它的价值，如果一味提前结束它的周期的话，对发展
不是很有利。创新也要有前提是创新可以带来什么价值。
D 认为 c2c 产品的生命周期相比较传统产品更短，这是人类文明发展规律，是不可避
免的，因为现在技术的迭代越来越快，手机使用寿命就会越来越短。公司在做计划性
报废的时候首先考虑安全，比如说电池不能爆炸，不能漏液，第二是成本，做可回收
也是为了降低对企业的经济成本，和对环境的环境成本。
E 表示 C2C 是一个从端到端的流程啊，是一个可重复可循环可利用啊，理论上它要比
产品的生命周期要长，它是产品生命周期结束后再重复利用，已经不在是这个产品了，
有可能已经被分解了，有可能被翻新复用或者可能已经被废弃了，他其实是在产品生
命周期之外的。C2C 只是一个循环利用的概念，是一个环保的理念，我们要在经济利
益和环保理念的基础上上做一个权衡，所以在产品成本允许的基础上尽量用可重复利
用的材料，C2C 是包含 LCA，因为产品的生命周期是 C2C 环节中前端的一环。
F 认为企业首先要考虑这个产品能否符合市场的需要，奢侈的使用材料从一个设计团
队的角度来说是根本不可能发生的。设计产品的初期肯定会考虑这个产品未来的利润
空间，在成本允许的范围内尽可能的使用环保材料，这是一个设计体系和理念。在方
案设计的时候考虑 C2C 的成本是不是更大，如果成本更低肯定会增加成本，那就要考
虑成本是不是在可接受计划范围之内，如果在计划之内肯定会用 C2C 的。从理论上来
说，从来没有一个公司以创新为战略的，只不过创新的好处和目的在于提高更高的附
加值产品，或者降低成本这叫创新，所以华为一直在强调基于客户需求的创新，它的
创新一定是优化成本将产品变得更强，创新是手段不是目标。

关于 C2C 的评估机构
A 有些第三方机构是国外来的，照搬了国外的标准可能不适用于国内的标准，在中国
肯定要按照中国的标准去检测。国内外标准原则上标准化体系是不需要变通的，但存
在一个标准主导权的问题，比如在移动通讯里包括华为 3G 和 4G 跟国外用的是同一个
标准，到中国后仅存在一个翻译问题，这叫国际通讯标准，如果各国有各国的标准那
就是个自不一样的。
B 认为理论上有标准的体系来说，第三方认证会比华为认证会更好一些，因为第三方
认证机构通常是客观公正的，这个跟机制无关。标准是不断的去调整去进步的，标准
也是更新迭代的，不存在完美的东西。

44
C 认为监管机构合不合理，但有它存在的理由，但是有些国际监管机构的标准不太适
合中国企业的情况，成本太高对于企业来说使它们失去竞争力很难生存，但是不按照
标准又违反了法律，这中间存在一个矛盾，需要一些更合理的标准出台。
D 表示监管机构普遍来讲不太合理，评估，监管，认证其实是一个高度专业化的事情，
核心在人才和体制，目前中国的评估体制由于利益分配等天生的缺陷会导致不如民营
企业做的更有效率，监管机构的体系跟不上时代的进步。而国外的一些监管机构照搬
它们惯用的标准来套用在中国市场其实不太恰当，有一些真空地带。
E 华为以前做 PPT 分三档，一种叫基本合格目标、一种叫卓越目标、一种叫不达标目
标，先设定一个基本目标再设定一个挑战目标花几年的时间逐步实现。人在随着时代
进步一定是逐步去接近许愿的方向。所有东西推向经济环保是一个努力你的方向和目
标，C2C 里面分为 5 级，如果达不到最高级那我们就从最低级一级一级的努力，在合
理的范围内尽可能按照最高级的 C2C 去做，相当于一个标杆。
G 废品回收由卫生局环卫局等等一些机构监管。

关于生物循环和技术循环

B 说华为的 c2c 战略有些高端产品报废后它的零部件拆下来是可以在低端产品上使用

的，第二点，如果是低端产品再被淘汰后可能还是进入传统的回收体系。因为通讯设
备里面都会有些贵金属，像是纯金有些通讯设备信号屏蔽这个是必需品。C 认为华为
做的一些电动工具所用的塑料壳有的也是二次回收的，一些塑料垃圾被溶解成塑料颗
粒再利用生成黑色的橡胶壳模具再利用，我们还把二三十年前的老基站，老物件回收
加工成工艺品赠送和摆在自己的办公桌上。D 觉得 c2c 所追求的百分之百回收再利用
概念是理想化的几乎没有实现的可能。G 跟西方的回收体系有一些不一样从预发订单
到工厂下单这样的一个零库存，中国这边销售厂家是不负责回收的，但是中国的零库
存是有库存的，只不过说对于像电信联通等某个通讯运营商来说他是零库存，比如我
的需求是 100 个，但是前期我是不知道的，华为有可能送 120 台到我这，那么这 20 台
电信是要退还给华为的，华为对没有销售掉的手机进行回收，把他卖到其他地方，比
如在上海销售掉 100 台手机，剩下的 20 台销售到其他西部地区，或者运输到国外例如
缅甸等一些比较穷的国家去，那么进行二次销售，这也可以叫做一个新产品的可回收
的回溯体系。

这是其中的第一条，第二条是用户用下来的回收体系，就是废弃的电子产品进行来回
收的。例如电信全面升级光纤，电信通讯商退下来的电话线里的铜缆，到我们这边就
是进行加工，将最外层绝缘橡胶皮剥掉，塑料皮是一个回收，里面的铜丝是一个回收，
按不同的材料分别分类称重卖掉。同样，手机也是，电子版与玻璃屏幕等都是分开回
收处理的，剩下的废件处理有几种方式，一种就是填埋，一种就是焚烧，一般国内和
国际上处理方式都是这两种方式。填埋和焚烧，对于废品来说，有价值的东西只有线
路板里的金银铜，其他的都不需要的，只需要用硫酸对线路板进行提纯，将金银铜提

45
纯出来。废品焚烧不只是不是因为回收的价格太高，而是因为这些废品本来就没用了，
本身就是废件了。

第三种回收举例来说，一个旧手机上有某些部件可以作为维修部件再利用，比如摄像
头是可以拆下来的，任何品牌只要是像素差不多，都可以安装使用，这也是进入回收
的方式去做，而不是进入到废品的回收体系。比如翻新机，就是用旧的配件套上新的
外壳当新的手机进行出售。
H 废品回收是分成几个领域，比如一类废品因为带有污染源，提炼金属这个环节会产
生很多有毒有害物质产生和排放所以由环卫局来监管，所以回收和存储都要具备有关
部门发放的资质认定书，环卫局会审查核定资质，尤其是电池这部分，因为电池是高
危物品，它里面会发生火灾发生爆炸，例如硫酸电池、镍氢电池等。现在在中国也有
手机企业是自己处理电子垃圾的。比如说爱回收。专门的手机回收公司，他们是做两
部分，一部分回收后转销到偏远地区进行二次销售。而另一部分报废机则进入到回收
体系。
第二个，华为做纪念品是将废品变为原材料了，将塑料压缩之后变成了新的塑料件，
导入到模具之后会做成任何东西。金银铜等金属也一样，再做成手机，就生产成金丝
铜丝等加入到电路板里。将材料收集后做成纪念品只是一种方式，不改变材质的本身。
原本中国本来就是一个处理洋垃圾的地方，所以以前的企业不会去考虑回收再利用的，
进口洋垃圾去加工制造。举个例子，我们有很多的污水，自来水厂处理水一般分成上
排和下排两块，污水进入水厂会用离心机将 98%的水和 2%的污泥进行分离，把污泥
沉淀下来，最新的技术可将污泥的干湿度处理到 85%-90%，形成的基本上是干沥。污
泥做成的污泥棒会运到生物发电厂进行发电使用，干适度 90%的污泥棒会产生 2800 卡
的热值，如果是含有特殊元素的工业性污泥棒则会产生 3500-4000 卡的热值。在这种
变废为宝的情况下污水厂也会从中盈利，否则污水厂分离出的污泥便会找地方填埋从
而占用更多的土地资源。

关于可拆卸技术
A 在航空航天这块，为了减少对太空的污染在材料选择上在一些设计上就考虑到这个
问题，要利于回收利于拆卸。
B 这个一定是这样的，不管是我早期做无线基站还是现在的手机，拆卸都是非常关键
的，特别是无线基站，比如 2008 年的时候北京奥运会中国在珠穆朗玛峰上面就建立了
基站，如果那个基站一旦出现问题，回收成本将会是非常高的
C 可拆卸我的领域好像不怎么强，基本坏了都毁掉了融掉了送掉了。
D 产品设计成可拆卸主要来自两方面的动力才行。第一是成本的降低和可靠性的提高，
这是一个动力。第二是来自行业和国家的要求。手机现在要把 SIM 卡去掉，直接集成
到线路板上，第一成本降低可靠性提高了，不用换卡了直接取数据就够了，第二也方
便用户携带手机转网，这也能得到用户的认可。另外在航空航天行业内有设计要求，

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要求要做到可回收可拆卸。要降低对太空的污染减少太空垃圾。如果公司也有类似的
动力驱动，这个工作就好做。
E 产品的设计理念要保证产品要在市场上有一定的利润，否则这个产品进入不了设计
和实施阶段。在成本可接受的情况下尽可能采用高新技术和可回收技术。因为华为很
多组件都是外部的，如果自己设计可能会设计可拆卸的，可能可拆卸的更便宜组装更
容易。如果有利益驱使，肯定会研发开拓有拆卸技术组件来降低成本。

关于合金回收问题
A 所有的回收工作都是由成本和效益决定的。现在的回收工作要达到环保要求是非常
严格的，而且对企业来讲很难赚钱。我原来做半导体集成电路的，如果把一个芯片或
者一个线路板做的完全环保那个成本是非常高的，废水废料都要经过处理，这个成本
很高。当然从理念上来讲这个废旧电子产品手机之类的需要做回收，回收以后再把材
料进行重新提取然后重新利用这个当然是最好的最理想的，要有新的工艺新的技术，
而且要把回收成本降低下来，这样原材料的成本稍微高点都没关系，但是回收成本一
定要低。
B 深淘滩低作堰-华为提倡自身底蕴一定要深厚，就像把河床挖得特别深，但是把合作
壁垒设的很低，就像把堤坝修建得低矮让河水溢出让合作伙伴都受益。我的理解是华
为一定会让专业的人来做专业的事。
C 回收工作最难的第一就是要创造效益，第二就是要达到环保要求。但有些个别材料
还是能达到环保回收要求的比如说金。硬质线路板里的金是可以回收的，因为金的价
值比较高，所以回收以后它在效益上有利可图。但像有些东西像铜和镍这样的回收就
很难，难的不是技术问题而是它的成本太高，价值太低。更多的问题还是成本问题，
可是要突破成本问题依然要依靠技术手段。比如说新的化学方法或者新的回收工艺，
有了这个技术以后后面更多的回收工作就能更好的进行。
D 华为的复合材料供应商来自全球，而不是主要依靠自己的研发部门，所以复合材料
如何回收的责任主要不应该由华为一家公司来承担。材料的研发是一个长周期大投入
的工作，由华为来负责也不现实，虽然华为也有材料部门但是研发材料不是重点工作。
复合材料主要还是靠全球供应链支撑，比如德国日本美国在顶尖材料方面比中国积累
要深。复合材料主要还是“他们给我们东西，我们用。”
E 华为很多的产品都是组装的，比如 LED 屏很多都不是华为的，所以有些原材料以前
是支持的现在就可以支持回收，反之不支持回收的未来也只能不支持。

关于逆向供应链
A 废旧手机的回收再制造成新产品这一块是谁觉得有价值就谁来做不属于华为公司管
是, 回收这一块是社会化。现在政府没有说专门归哪个部门管，它是社会化的问题，所
以一般谁觉得有利可图谁就去做了。
D 那后续的回收问题是谁觉得有价值谁就去做而不是华为来决定.
E 逆向供应链就是对于回收再创造新的产品就不归华为负责，而是谁觉得这个逆向供
应链有价值谁就负责。是在华为产品范围之内，已经过了产品周期了就是华为可以回

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收，其他公司也可以回收，现在上海有专门回收的公司。很多人手机就扔在家了，因
为担心隐私泄露的原因不会送去回收。设置的越多成本投入越大，回收对华为也没有
更多的商业利益。华为的实力足够强，华为想做什么事情根本不需要政府来去指挥，
华为设置的站点只是商业行为。大家都不在意回收那么这个项目的意义是以旧换新促
进新产品的购买

关于回收行为的决定因素

爱回收专业清除：作为回收的固定处理环节，检测人员在对旧机质检的过程中，会对
回收的旧机进行专业的数据删除，通过 Blancco 专业工具清除旧机上的个人数据，清
理过程全程录像监控，以保证用户隐私数据的安全，确保隐私不外泄。
华为商城以旧换新服务中，有三种对旧机的回收方式，分别是：信用回收、顺丰快递
回收和质检师上门回收, 信用回收是指基于用户的支付宝芝麻信用进行的回收。
顺丰快递员根据您填写地址和上门时间上门收件，邮寄至质检中心进行质检和最终报
价，您根据质检报告选择是否确认交易，若订单成交代金券立即到账，若订单取消物
品将按原地址退回至用户。质检师上门回收，是由爱回收的专业质检师根据您填写的
地址和上门时间进行上门回收，当面质检、报价并成交，代金券立即到账。

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