Move forward

"By adopting the ban, China plans to change the current global structure in the division of work, eradicating its role as a dumping ground for leftovers from developed countries, which has grown in the past 30 years," Xue said.

The ban caters to a growing demand for sustainable development and public calls for a cleaner environment in recent years, and it's a step China urgently needed to take, he said.

Therese Coffey, parliamentary undersecretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the U.K, said the ban may not be all bad news for Britain.

"It gives us an opportunity to reprocess more here, rather than exporting to the other side of the world just because it's a bit cheaper to do so," Coffey told the UK Environmental Audit Committee in November.

In the U.S., some processors are trying to find markets to replace China.

Xu Haiyun, chief engineer of the China Urban Construction Design and Research Institute, said the planned ban demonstrates the central government's strong determination to curb pollution from imported solid waste, which is quite encouraging, but he added "implementation may be not easy".

China has not established a household garbage sorting system or a waste-recycling network, which means a massive amount of waste ends up in landfills and incinerators, he added.

Xue, from E20, is optimistic about progress in establishing a recycling network before 2020 as a result of government support and rising private sector investment.

Domestic recyclers may discover replacement sources of solid waste soon, he said.

Pilot garbage-sorting projects have been established in more than 20 cities, and there are plans to boost the recycling industry so the total volume of recyclable waste grows from 256 million tons in 2016 to 350 million tons by 2020, according to statements from the central government.

More measures have been adopted to regulate solid waste imports, because the materials are often dirty, poorly sorted or contaminated with hazardous substances. Even when such waste is safely imported, it is not always recycled properly.

For example, in Tianjin, highly-polluting processing plants have been corralled in the Ziya Circular Economy Industrial Zone, and special equipment is used to tackle the pollutants emitted, according to Tang Guilan, the zone's deputy director.

Moreover, the zone strictly supervises every container to ensure that imported recyclables are processed inside the facility and no contaminated products are allowed to leave.

The 387 companies in the zone can process more than 1.5 million tons of solid waste, including imported material, every year, providing ample material for the domestic market, such as 300,000 tons of plastic products, without polluting the atmosphere.

Regulating solid waste imports is a major issue to protect the environment and public health, so China will employ a range of safety measures and will hit violators hard, said Li Ganjie, the minister of environmental protection.

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