Mary Mickel, known as the "Queen of the Internet," released the 2017 Internet Trends Report at the Code Conference in the United States on June 1st, with a special focus on China's shared bicycle service. According to the report, China's Internet-sharing car sharing bicycles lead the world, sharing the number of trips per year to tens of billions, accounting for 67% of the global market.

According to reports, the total number of shared bicycles expected to be released in 2017 may be nearly 20 million. After the bicycles are scrapped, nearly 300,000 tons of scrap metal will be produced. In the near future, who will bear the environmental and resource responsibility brought by the large number of scrapped shared bicycles?

"Technology Daily" reporter Liu Yuanyuan

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple...not a rainbow in the sky, a shared bicycle in the streets and alleys. If you want to summarize them in one color, people might think of "green." Because shared bicycles are born with an environmentally friendly aura.

“Help reduce traffic congestion, reduce environmental pollution, and make the city we live in better.” Mobike's official website describes its vision and mission. Ono's self-introduction on the official website also mentions the sharing of bicycle services that are “easy economy, green and low carbon”.

However, a recent news has blown a cloud of "green" confession of shared bicycles. According to reports, in 2016, nearly 20 brands put about 2 million shared bicycles, and the total amount expected to be launched in 2017 is likely to be close to 20 million. After the bicycles are scrapped, nearly 300,000 tons of scrap metal will be produced, which is equivalent to the weight of the structural steel of the five aircraft carriers.

In the near future, who will bear the environmental and resource responsibility brought by the large number of scrapped shared bicycles? this is a problem.

The amount of delivery you chase, the operation and maintenance who do

In the fierce market “enclosure” campaign, the number of shared bicycles and the number of cities in the city continued to record.

On June 22, Mobai announced his entry into Japan. According to reports, Mobike currently operates more than 5 million smart shared bicycles in more than 100 cities around the world, and its number of cities will expand to 200 by the end of this year. The speed of theo's bicycles is even more alarming: it was only 60,000 units in the country last October, and by June this year, the number was 6 million.

There are more and more shared bicycles on the subway and on the roadside, but how to maintain these bicycles if they have problems?

At the end of May, the Shanghai Bicycle Industry Association and the Tianjin Bicycle Electric Vehicle Industry Association jointly initiated the drafting of the shared bicycle group standard "Standard for Shared Bicycle Service" (hereinafter referred to as "Specifications"). After publicly seeking opinions from the public, they passed the expert review. . Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management of Tongji University, is the leader of the "Specifications" validation expert group. He told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the "Regulations" are currently awaiting confirmation from relevant government departments.

The "Protocol" proposes that shared bicycles should be equipped with maintenance personnel in proportion to the total number of vehicles not less than 5 ,, that is, for every 10,000 shared bicycles, 50 maintenance personnel are required. The above requirements are formulated with reference to the on-site dispatching, maintenance, maintenance, and personnel ratio of the shared bicycles at 10 ,, and it is considered that the personnel equipped by the shared bicycle operators can meet the standard requirements.

According to the amount of delivery, at present, the Mobike bicycle needs at least 5,000 maintenance personnel, and the ato bicycle needs at least 6,000 maintenance personnel. In this regard, Moby bicycle said that it is temporarily unable to disclose relevant data. The person in charge of theo public bicycle public relations said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily reporter that there are currently more than 10,000 maintenance personnel in the country.

"From the current situation of actual operation, there is still a considerable gap between the personnel of the shared bicycle operating unit." According to relevant documents, 5‰ is already the minimum requirement.

"The final release is to be saturated." Zhu Dajian said that many large cities on the eastern coast have been fully loaded, but as this operation continues, the number of damaged shared bicycles will increase. "These issues will become an increasingly big problem in the shared bicycle market in the next year or two."

From manufacturing to recycling, the sharing economy should be a "round"

"China's shared bicycles should not only provide bicycle rental services, but should implement the concept of circular economy in the three aspects of manufacturing, operation and recycling. It is the real sharing economy." In Zhu Dajian's view, the sharing economy is a cycle. A new form of economy, shared bicycles should be oriented to a circular economy, rather than the traditional linear economy model.

For example, in the operation link, Zhu Dajian's suggestion is that shared bicycles should learn from the time-sharing rental car industry, and the manufacturer of shared bicycles also serves as a service provider. With upstream technology to support, and deal with problems in the operation process, it can effectively reduce the damage and scrapping of shared bicycles.

What is missing from shared bicycles is not just operational maintenance.

In the manufacturing process, shared bicycles may have new “thresholds”. Another group standard, "Shared Bicycles Part 1: Bicycles", proposes various design standards for shared bicycles, many of which use international advanced standards. The standard puts forward higher requirements on the anti-corrosion performance of shared bicycle plating and paint, and also proposes that the lock should have "internet function".

What worries Dagang is that some shared bicycle operators are currently adopting the standard of low-cost traditional bicycles in the manufacturing design process in order to seize the market. “Desperately engaging in low-cost delivery is a short-sighted approach. After a year or two, I saw the drawbacks.” Zhu Dajian explained that shared bicycles are more efficient to use than private bicycles, and if they are durable, they have a long life. It is also longer, so long-term is more profitable. On the contrary, if the durability is poor, the damage rate will be high. Once the government introduces a mandatory recycling policy, the operating cost will increase. In the long run, it will only squeeze the profit space and even lead to losses.

The low-cost shared bicycle delivery route may also have the effect of “bad money and good money”. Zhu Dajian believes that many shared bicycle operators are currently buying large quantities of cheap bicycles in order to occupy the market faster. This in turn will put pressure on operators who want to do more expensive and durable bicycles. "This will make everyone compete in a bad direction, which is not conducive to the establishment of circular economy guidance in the entire shared bicycle market." Zhu Dajian said.

After the business model is innovated, it is necessary to solve the problem of co-governance mode.

The word "recycling" seems to be far away for the ascendant shared bicycle. Unfortunately, there is not much time left for them.

The "Protocol" proposes that shared bicycles are generally forcibly scrapped after three consecutive years of use. According to the relevant documents, the average driving distance per bicycle per year is 10 times or even tens of times that of a civilian bicycle. This requirement is for the safety of users. However, from the current market situation, there are not many shared bicycles with a life expectancy of more than three years.

Indeed, the shared bicycle of "end to sleep" has begun to appear. Huaxin Luyuan is a large-scale environmental protection enterprise in Beijing. Zhang Jun, the chairman of the company, said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily reporter that it began to “receive a few orders” to share the bicycle recycling business two months ago.

"Every time you run a lap, you can pull a truck back, but all three vehicles are scattered. The cost of personnel and transportation is very high. Basically, they are losing money." Zhang Jun said that recycling is free, but scrapping bicycles. After dismantling, the part that can be recycled and reused is mainly iron on the frame, which is not worth the money. He told reporters that the company is willing to cooperate with shared bicycle operators, but the “losing money” recycling method is not sustainable. It is also necessary to negotiate a cooperation model acceptable to both parties. For example, shared bicycle companies first collect scrapped bicycles.

“Recycling of shared bicycles is a big problem. Because of the high recycling costs, operators generally feel that they are very expensive.” But Zhu Dajian believes that the main responsibility of recycling is to share the bicycle operators themselves, not just to put them into the resources. And the responsibility of the environment is pushed to the government and society. If the operating force is insufficient, it should be handed over to a third party.

Shared bicycle operators reacted differently to recycling issues. On May 4th, Mobike announced that it has cooperated with China Renewable Resources Development Co., Ltd. to try to share the “full lifecycle management” of bicycles and explore the treatment plan for batch bicycle recycling, harmless and resource recycling. In the interview with the media, Xiaoming Bicycle's Guangzhou operation chief said that he is still working on a new car and has not begun to consider recycling. Yuba bicycles and Yongan bicycles said that in the future, scrapped bicycles will be handled in accordance with national requirements.

"In any case, if the past year is mainly to share the business model innovation of the bicycle industry, the government, society and operators will need to solve the problem of the joint management of shared bicycles in the next few years," said Zhu Dajian.