废品

• Pinyin: fèi pǐn
• Hanzi breakdown: 废 = 广 + 发 (abandoned structure — useless, discarded); 品 = three 口 (three mouths — goods, products, quality grade)

Meaning

Waste; reject; defective product; scrap material. Items that are unusable, substandard, or discarded.

Covers both industrial rejects/defective goods (次品) and recyclable scrap materials (废旧物资). 废品回收 (waste recycling / scrap collection) is a major industry. Also used figuratively for a 'failed' person or thing, though this is informal.

Examples

1. 这家工厂引进了自动光学检测系统对产品进行全流程质量管控，将每万件产品中的废品率成功压缩至不足三件，达到行业领先水准。 The factory introduced an automated optical inspection system for end-to-end quality control, successfully reducing its defect rate to fewer than three per ten thousand products, reaching an industry-leading level.
2. 废品回收行业在循环经济体系中扮演着不可或缺的资源再生角色，其对钢铁、铜、铝等基础金属的回收加工量已占国内原材料供应总量的相当比重。 The scrap-recycling industry plays an indispensable role in a circular economy by regenerating resources; its recycling and processing volume for basic metals like steel, copper, and aluminum already accounts for a substantial share of the country’s total raw material supply.
3. 严格的供应链质量审核制度要求供应商对批次废品率超过既定阈值的交货作出全额补偿，以确保整个生产体系的品质稳定性。 A strict supply-chain quality audit system requires suppliers to provide full compensation for deliveries whose batch defect rate exceeds the preset threshold, to ensure stable quality across the entire production system.

Usage Guide

Context: manufacturing, industry, environment, recycling

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 随着城市废品回收体系的持续完善，居民在社区分类投放的废旧金属、纸张和塑料经过专业分拣加工后，已形成一条产值可观的循环利用产业链。(As the urban waste recycling system continues to improve, the discarded metals, paper, and plastics sorted and deposited by residents at community collection points have, after professional sorting and processing, formed a circular utilisation industrial chain of considerable output value.)
• 废品率是衡量生产工艺和质量管理的重要指标，长期偏高不仅推高成本，还可能暴露设备或参数隐患。(The defect rate is an important measure of production process and quality management. If it stays high for long, it raises costs and may expose hidden problems in equipment or settings.)

Don't Say

• 废品 to describe a person in formal contexts — calling someone 废品 is a very harsh informal insult implying they are completely useless; avoid this in professional settings and use only with awareness of its strongly negative interpersonal connotation

Origin & History

废 (useless; discarded) + 品 (product; article; grade) — discarded or substandard products

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal