China introduces new recycling drive to tackle tons of waste

SHANGHAI: After extending a ban on foreign trash imports, China now plans to launch 100 new large-scale ‘recycling bases’ by the end of next year as a part of a campaign to make better use of its resources.

China is loaded with millions of tons of waste due to a long manufacturing boom. Much of the waste is buried in sprawling landfill sites or dismantled by hand in polluting backstreet workshops. It has taken steps to create fully industrialised recycling bases and cut off foreign supplies to tackle the rising problem.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in a policy document issued late last week said, “Large volumes of solid waste are already impacting and restricting the high-quality development of the industrial economy.” The bases will tackle waste with the biggest public impact, the ministry added.

Projects or companies approved to set up shop in one of these new bases can apply for special government funding, and China will also make use of new financing mechanisms, including green bonds.

Recycling units in China have earned huge profit from waste shipped from Europe and the United States, which is better sorted and therefore cheaper to treat than domestic material. But the Chinese government has been steadily blocking shipments since 2017.

The initial 2017 ban on 24 types of imported waste, including plastic and paper, was extended at the end of 2018. Total solid waste imports fell 48 per cent on the year in 2018, and China eventually aims to block all imports that have readily available domestic replacements.