China has achieved zero import of garbage including waste plastics

On October 21, 2022, Zhai Qing, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, communicated with reporters on the theme of "building a beautiful China in which people and nature live in harmony".

Zhai Qing said that in the past ten years, pollution prevention and control has developed in depth. We resolutely declared war on pollution, thoroughly implemented the action plan for the prevention and control of air, water and soil pollution, made every effort to defend the blue sky, clear water and clean land, and solved a large number of outstanding ecological and environmental problems related to people's livelihood. In 2021, the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at prefecture level and above in China will decrease by 34.8% compared with that in 2015, the proportion of days with good air will reach 87.5%, the proportion of Class I-III water sections in surface water will reach 84.9%, and the proportion of inferior Class V water bodies will drop to 1.2%. Soil risk will be effectively controlled, garbage import will be comprehensively prohibited, and the goal of zero import of solid waste will be achieved.

Fang Li's science and technology editor learned that China was once the largest garbage importer in the world, including 24 kinds of garbage, including waste plastics, unclassified waste paper, waste textile materials, etc. In 2016, more than two-thirds of America's waste paper exports went directly to China, with a total value of more than $2.2 billion. The 27 EU countries also rely on China to receive waste and transport 87% of recycled plastics directly or indirectly to China. Every year, 2.7 million tons of waste plastics in Britain flow to China, accounting for 2/3 of the country's plastic waste output. In July 2017, the General Office of the State Council of China issued the Implementation Plan on Prohibiting the Entry of Foreign Garbage and Promoting the Reform of the Solid Waste Import Management System, which basically achieved zero import of solid waste by the end of 2020. The comprehensive ban on the entry of garbage and the realization of zero import of solid wastes as scheduled show that the provisions of the Solid Waste Law have been fully implemented, significant achievements have been made in China's ecological civilization construction, and an important step has been taken in China's high-quality economic development.