Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 28, Title: A comprehensive ban on foreign garbage entry effect is remarkable

Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Lu, Gao Jing

17 provinces, 25 directly under the customs, police 1291 people... Early on the morning of the 22nd, the third round of the special centralized action to combat foreign garbage smuggling "Blue Sky 2018" officially began, and the nets were closed simultaneously in many places, and 39 suspected smuggling criminal gangs were arrested in one fell fell, 137 criminal suspects were arrested and hundreds of thousands of tons of smuggled waste were verified.

"The scope of this concentrated operation, the dispatched police force, and the amount of smuggling verified are all the largest in recent years by Chinese Customs." The General Administration of Customs official said. In fact, as early as February this year, the General Administration of Customs announced that the crackdown on foreign garbage smuggling was listed as the number one anti-smuggling project this year. In the first quarter of this year, 139 criminal cases of foreign garbage smuggling were filed and investigated, and 254,000 tons of various types of waste involved were verified.

The customs' crackdown on smuggling of foreign garbage is a representative epitome of China's efforts to ban foreign garbage from entering the country and promote the reform of the solid waste import management system in recent years.

Minister of Ecology and Environment Li Ganjie said that the ban on foreign garbage and the reform of the solid waste import management system are major measures taken by the Chinese government to implement the new development concept, strive to improve the quality of the ecological environment, and safeguard national ecological security and people's health.

Since The General Office of the State Council issued the implementation plan for the reform of the solid waste import management system by prohibiting the entry of foreign garbage in July 2017, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, has carried out a comprehensive implementation by combining dredging and tackling both symptoms and root causes.

-- The catalogue of imported waste management has been adjusted three times. Among them, the first batch of adjustment catalogs has taken effect on December 31, 2017, and has completely banned the import of solid waste that is harmful to the environment and has strong public reaction. The second batch and the third batch will be implemented from December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2019, respectively. After the three adjustments, the types of imported solid waste listed in the catalogue that can be used as raw materials have been reduced from seven categories of 66 to two categories of 18.

-- Further tightening the entraining material control indicators and revising the environmental protection control standards for imported solid waste that can be used as raw materials, which have been officially implemented since March 1, 2018.

-- Printing and distributing the regulations on environmental protection of imported waste paper and improving the requirements for the scale of imported waste paper processing enterprises.

-- Promulgating the regulations on environmental protection and management of solid waste that restricts imports and can be used as raw materials, canceling the import agent of trading units, and reducing the risk of transferring import licenses.

-- A number of solid waste attribute identification institutions are recommended, and the number of identification institutions has increased from 3 to 20, further solving the problem of difficult identification of imported waste.

-- Cleaning up and rectifying the "five wastes" recycling industries such as electronic waste, waste tires, waste plastics, waste clothes and waste household appliances.

Up to now, China has focused on the rectification of 194 "five wastes" industry distribution centers, investigated 18,000 recycling enterprises, and shut down more than 8,800.

...

Under this promotion, China's total ban on foreign garbage has achieved remarkable results. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that in 2017, the actual import volume of solid waste fell by 9.2% year-on-year, of which the import volume of restricted solid waste fell by 12%. In the first quarter of this year, solid waste imports fell 57 percent year on year, of which restricted solid waste imports fell 64 percent.

Next, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and relevant departments will strictly review applications for solid waste import licenses, strive to significantly reduce solid waste imports year by year, and carry out special law enforcement actions to crack down on environmental violations of imported solid waste processing and utilization enterprises, and continue to maintain high law enforcement pressure. (Finished)

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