On April 22, staff from the Qiaodong Branch of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Xingtai City, Hebei Province, explained garbage classification knowledge to community residents. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Zhang Chi)

On April 29, the 17th meeting of the 13th National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the revised "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes" (hereinafter referred to as the "Solid Waste Law"), which will come into effect on September 1, 2020.

Since its adoption in 1995, the Solid Waste Law has undergone five revisions. The newly revised Solid Waste Law clarifies the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid waste and strengthens the supervision and management responsibilities of the government and its relevant departments, improves the environmental pollution prevention and control system for industrial solid waste, domestic waste, hazardous waste, construction waste, agricultural solid waste, etc., improves the guarantee mechanism, and strictly enforces legal responsibilities. In response to a reporter's question, the head of the relevant department of the Legal Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee said that this comprehensive revision of the Solid Waste Law is an urgent need to promote the fight against pollution in accordance with the law, and is an important measure to improve the most stringent and rigorous legal system for ecological environmental protection and strengthen the legal guarantee of public health.

Elevate the experience of COVID-19 prevention and control to law

The COVID-19 prevention and control has put forward new requirements for solid waste management. The relevant department head of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress said that the newly revised Solid Waste Law has effectively strengthened the management of medical waste, especially medical waste in the process of responding to major infectious diseases, clarified that medical waste should be managed in accordance with the national hazardous waste list, and stipulated that the competent departments such as health and ecological environment of the people's governments at or above the county level should strengthen the supervision and management of medical waste collection, storage, transportation and disposal within their respective responsibilities to prevent harm to public health and pollution of the environment.

Highlight the main responsibility. The law stipulates that medical and health institutions shall collect and classify medical waste generated by their units in accordance with the law and hand it over to centralized medical waste disposal units for disposal. Centralized medical waste disposal units shall collect, transport and dispose of medical waste in a timely manner. Medical and health institutions and centralized medical waste disposal units shall take effective measures to prevent the loss, leakage, seepage and spread of medical waste.

Improve the emergency guarantee mechanism. The law stipulates that when major infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies occur, the people's governments at or above the county level shall coordinate the collection, storage, transportation, and disposal of medical waste and other hazardous wastes, and ensure the necessary vehicles, sites, disposal facilities, and protective materials. People's governments at all levels shall arrange necessary funds for the emergency disposal of medical waste and other hazardous wastes generated by major infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies in accordance with the principle of division of responsibilities.

In addition, the new solid waste law also stipulates that laboratories of all levels and types and their establishment units shall strengthen the management of solid waste generated by laboratories, and collect, store, transport, utilize, and dispose of laboratory solid waste in accordance with the law. Farmers' markets, agricultural product wholesale markets, etc. should strengthen environmental sanitation management, keep the environment clean, and promptly clean, classify, collect, and properly dispose of the generated garbage.

Classification of domestic waste has become a "must-answer question" for citizens

Based on many years of practice, the new solid waste law clearly stipulates that the state will implement a domestic waste classification system.

The universal implementation of the garbage classification system is related to the improvement of the living environment of nearly 1.4 billion people. In 2000, eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were listed as pilot cities for waste classification collection in China. In 2019, cities at prefecture level and above in China fully launched the classification of domestic waste. It has been 20 years since the waste classification went from pilot to promotion. On July 1, 2019, the "Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations" was officially implemented, implementing full-process classification management from the source of waste generation to the end treatment. Illegal disposal will be fined up to 200 yuan, and Shanghai's domestic waste classification has entered the "mandatory era". On May 1, Beijing's newly revised domestic waste management regulations will also be officially implemented. At present, garbage cans have been replaced with "new clothes" one after another. It is understood that the phenomenon of "mixed loading" and "mixed transportation" is still serious in many cities in China, and some urban sanitation workers or garbage stations still need to sort twice.

The new solid waste law stipulates that units, households and individuals that generate domestic waste shall fulfill their obligations to classify and place them in accordance with the law. Any unit or individual shall classify and place domestic waste at designated locations in accordance with the law, and shall not dump, scatter, pile or burn them at will.

During the deliberation of the draft law, many members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress said that the current legal provisions are relatively complete, and the important thing is implementation. "The classification of domestic waste involves thousands of households, which requires extensive social mobilization and cannot be achieved overnight." Liu Xiuwen, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that authoritative and operational legal norms are conducive to better promoting the classification system of domestic waste. He suggested that the State Council formulate administrative regulations on the classification of domestic waste and further refine the relevant principle provisions of this law.

Combining "blocking" and "draining" to control excessive packaging

According to statistics from the State Post Bureau, since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the volume of express parcels in China has increased by 10 billion pieces per year, reaching 63.9 billion pieces in 2019, and now the daily express delivery volume exceeds 200 million pieces. Behind the rapid development of the express delivery industry, the problem of excessive packaging cannot be ignored.

The new solid waste law clearly states that the design and manufacture of packaging materials shall comply with the relevant national regulations on clean production, requires organizations to formulate relevant standards to prevent environmental pollution caused by excessive packaging, emphasizes that producers and operators shall comply with the mandatory standards for limiting excessive packaging of goods, and requires market supervision and management departments and relevant departments to strengthen supervision and management of excessive packaging.

In addition, the new solid waste law stipulates that e-commerce, express delivery, take-out and other industries should give priority to reusable and recyclable packaging, optimize the packaging of goods, reduce the use of packaging, and actively recycle packaging. During the review of the draft law, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress proposed that some express delivery companies are interested in developing green packaging, but due to high investment costs, they can only retreat in the face of fierce market competition. Weng Mengyong, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, believes that although the initial investment cost of green packaging is high, the cost is acceptable from the perspective of the entire life cycle. "If the cost of social pollution treatment is added, it will be more economical and more reasonable", so he suggested that relevant policies be introduced as soon as possible to support it.

To control plastic pollution, the new solid waste law clearly stipulates that the state prohibits and restricts the production, sale and use of disposable plastic products such as non-degradable plastic bags in accordance with the law, and requires the establishment of commodity retail venues, e-commerce platform companies, express delivery companies, and take-out companies to report the use and recycling of disposable plastic products such as plastic bags to the competent departments such as commerce and postal services in accordance with regulations. In addition, the new law also stipulates penalties for industries such as tourism and accommodation that do not proactively provide disposable items in accordance with regulations and fail to comply with mandatory standards that limit excessive packaging of goods and prohibit the use of disposable plastic products.

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