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"We must give high priority to making ecological progress, work hard to build a beautiful country, and achieve lasting and sustainable development of the Chinese nation,” said Hu Jintao, Former President of the People’s Republic of China, in his report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012. That was a decade ago when China promised to promote ecological progress by incorporating it into the nation's overall development plan. Today, we are witnessing a China with clearer water and greener mountains, and the nation has made crucial steps in improving the ecological environment. Notably, China has come a long way in the environmental management of solid wastes and chemicals in these 10 years. ChemLinked has summarized some of the significant achievements.
Solid waste
1. Prohibition of imported solid wastes
In 2017, China started to promote the reform of foreign garbage imports and achieved the goal of zero imported solid waste by the end of 2020. During the reform, the nation has reduced around 100 million tons of imported solid waste. From 2016 to 2020, the recycled renewable resources rose significantly from 256 million tons to 372 million tons.
2. Improved environmental management system for hazardous wastes
On September 1, 2020, China started to implement the Law of the P.R.C on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste. As part of the efforts to improve the regulation of hazardous wastes, the nation has revised the National Inventory of Hazardous Wastes and stipulated further requirements, such as requirements for the identification and notification of hazardous chemicals. (Read more in previous CL news)
Chemicals
1. Systematic legal framework
On May 24, 2022, the Action Plan for New Pollutants Treatment was officially released by the State Council. The plan aims to establish a complete legal framework and sound system for toxic and hazardous chemicals’ environmental risks management by 2025. (Read more in previous CL news)
2. Enhanced source control for new chemicals
The environmental management registration system has been adopted to prevent new chemical substances with unreasonable environmental risks from entering China’s market. China has approved and registered more than 20,000 new chemical substances, proposed more than 3,200 environmental risk control measures, investigated and punished more than 300 alleged cases for illegal production of new chemical substances.
3. Improved environmental risk management and control
China has made it an important task to carry out environmental risk assessments for chemical substances. To date, the nation has released two batches of the Catalogue of Priority Controlled Chemicals*, which consists of 40 kinds of chemicals. These chemicals are subject to restrictions in certain products and shall comply with requirements of pollutant discharging licensing and cleaner production inspection. In addition, according to the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Atmospheric Pollution and the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Water Pollution, the Catalogue will function as a reference for the development of the List of Toxic and Hazardous Atmospheric Pollutants and the List of Toxic and Hazardous Water Pollutants.
*Catalogue of Priority Controlled Chemicals(1st Batch); Catalogue of Priority Controooled Chemicals(2nd Batch)
4. Participation in the international conventions
China has prohibited and restricted batches of chemical substances controlled by the Stockholm Convention and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. By 2021, China has phased out 20 kinds of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), eliminated the industrial process that uses mercury in 7 industries and ceased the production of mercury-added products. By complying with international conventions, China is expected to reduce the production and emissions of hundreds of thousands of tons of POPs, mercury and mercury compounds every year.
