BEIJING: China will ban the imports of 16 more scrap metal and chemical waste products from the end of this year, the environment ministry said on Thursday.
The 16 banned products include steel smelting slag containing more than 25 percent of the metal manganese, and ethylene polymer waste, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) said in a document published on its website.
China told the World Trade Organisation last year it would stop accepting imports of 24 types of foreign waste by the end of the year, and that it would phase out shipments of other waste products, including those readily available from domestic sources, by the end of 2019.
China’s crackdown on imported waste, which was as much as 47 million tonnes in 2015, is part of its “war on pollution”, and was meant to help upgrade the country’s economy and move it up the global supply chain.
“For the next step, the ecology and environment ministry together with other departments will conscientiously enforce and strictly forbid foreign garbage from crossing the border,” he said.
Even before the ban came into effect, the government cancelled the waste import permits of 960 companies in 2017, and shut down another 8,800 firms accused of violating restrictions on imported scrap paper and plastic. The environment ministry said last year’s total waste imports fell 12 percent as a result, but it didn’t give an absolute number.
The newly formed Ministry of Ecology and Environment said at its inaugural meeting last month that it would step up the fight against foreign waste, saying it was “a symbolic measure for the creation of an ecological civilisation in China.
