Ministry of Environmental Protection： A number of illegal recycling enterprises with serious pollution will be banned according to law.

　　CCTV News:According to the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, recently, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with the Development and Reform Commission and other five ministries and commissions, issued the Notice on jointly cleaning up and rectifying recycling industries such as dismantling electronic waste, waste tires, waste plastics, waste clothes and waste household appliances. Qiu Qiwen, Director of the Soil Environment Management Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, answered a reporter’s question on the background, main objectives and tasks of the clean-up and rectification.

　　Q: What is the background for six departments including the Ministry of Environmental Protection to jointly clean up and rectify recycling industries such as electronic waste, waste tires, waste plastics, waste clothes and waste household appliances?

　　A:In recent years, the environmental law enforcement inspection found that many solid waste recycling enterprises are small in scale, with low pollution control level, and the pollution control facilities are not operating normally, and other environmental violations are prominent. In some places, the recycling and processing enterprises of renewable resources are neglected, and even foreign garbage is allowed to enter the country for illegal processing and utilization. Many solid waste distribution centers have become hiding places for foreign garbage, with serious environmental pollution and strong public reaction, posing a threat to China’s ecological environment safety and people’s health.

　　In order to fully implement the "Implementation Plan on Prohibiting the Entry of Foreign Wastes and Promoting the Reform of the Management System for the Import of Solid Wastes", strengthen coordination among departments, and give full play to the overall regulatory efforts, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, carried out a five-month nationwide clean-up and rectification of recycling industries such as electronic waste, waste tires, waste plastics, waste clothes, and waste household appliances, and comprehensively rectified solid waste distribution centers. Eliminate foreign garbage hiding places, improve the management level and law enforcement level of solid waste recycling industry, promote the formation of green development mode and lifestyle, effectively improve environmental quality, safeguard ecological environment safety and people’s health.

　　Q: What is the main goal of this clean-up and rectification?

　　A:In accordance with the principle of "banning a batch according to law, focusing on rectifying a batch, and standardizing and guiding a batch", the main objectives of this clean-up and rectification are as follows: First, adhere to the problem orientation, urge local governments to clean up and rectify the recycling of electronic waste, waste tires, waste plastics, waste clothes, and waste household appliances, and crack down on illegal activities to improve the management level of the recycling industry; Second, strengthen environmental law enforcement, ban a number of illegal processing and utilization small workshops, "scattered pollution" enterprises and distribution centers that are seriously polluted and strongly reflected by the masses, and enhance the people’s sense of gain; The third is to standardize the green development of enterprises, guide relevant enterprises to adopt advanced and applicable processing technologies, gather and develop, and focus on the construction and operation of pollution control facilities to prevent soil and groundwater pollution.

　　Q: What are the main tasks of this clean-up and rectification?

　　A:This clean-up and rectification mainly completes the following three tasks:

　　One isA number of illegal recycling enterprises with serious pollution are banned according to law. Focus on investigating unlicensed small workshops that are mixed with residential areas and seriously affect the normal living environment of residents; Illegal enterprises without environmental protection approval procedures and industrial and commercial registration; Enterprises that do not conform to the national industrial policy; Enterprises whose pollution control facilities are not operating normally and cannot meet the discharge standards stably; Enterprises that process and utilize "foreign garbage"; Enterprises engaged in the processing and utilization of electronic waste and waste plastics containing toxic and harmful substances without hazardous waste business license. Investigate and deal with the illegal acts of the above-mentioned enterprises according to law, and report to the local people’s government to shut down the illegal enterprises according to law.

　　The second isFocus on rectifying processing and utilization distribution centers. Focus on the examination and approval and implementation of environmental impact assessment of distribution center planning, and the construction and operation of environmental protection infrastructure. Resolutely ban distribution centers mixed with residential areas in administrative villages or urban-rural fringe areas, as well as distribution centers with backward environmental protection infrastructure, serious pollution and strong public response. Cooperate with the local people’s government to do a good job in comprehensive improvement of distribution centers, industrial transformation and development, employment and resettlement of personnel, and maintaining social stability.

　　The third isStandardize and guide the healthy development of recycling enterprises. Improve the recycling infrastructure of renewable resources, promote relevant enterprises to adopt advanced and applicable processing technologies, gather and develop, and focus on the construction and operation of pollution control facilities; Promote the park, scale and clean development of domestic waste recycling enterprises; Encourage legal and compliant recycling enterprises to unite and reorganize, become bigger and stronger, and guide enterprises to develop green and healthy.

　　Q: What impact will this clean-up and rectification have on China’s renewable resources utilization industry?

　　A:Since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", although China’s renewable resource recycling industry has made great progress, the construction of domestic solid waste recycling system still lags behind the development needs of solid waste processing and utilization industry. The processing and utilization enterprises of renewable resources are mostly "scattered, chaotic and polluted" enterprises, and the level of pollution control is low, and most of them even have no pollution control facilities, which seriously pollutes the local atmosphere, water and soil environment. Through this clean-up and rectification, backward and excess capacity will be eliminated, the transformation and upgrading of China’s solid waste recycling industrial structure will be accelerated, the infrastructure for recycling renewable resources will be improved, the development level of domestic solid waste recycling industry will be effectively improved, and strong support will be provided for building a beautiful China and building a well-off society in an all-round way.