Ministry to step up efforts to stamp out solid waste smuggling

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has vowed to take tailored measures to crack down on the smuggling of foreign waste as criminals have gotten more creative.

After four years of efforts to phase out imports of garbage, China completely banned foreign waste imports last year. The country, however, is still confronted with some challenges in preventing overseas waste from entering, said Ren Yong, director general of the ministry's department of solid waste and chemicals management, at a news conference on Wednesday.

Driven by profit, some companies are still smuggling trash into the country, he said. In 2021, the General Administration of Customs investigated 110 waste smuggling cases involving 42,000 metric tons of foreign garbage.

Ren said smugglers have found creative ways to smuggle the waste. For example, some have declared trash as goods that are very similar in shape and size to customs.

The rapid development of some new businesses, including recycled raw material imports, maintenance services in bonded zones and remanufacturing, has also created loopholes that may allow foreign waste to enter China, he said.

Ren said the ministry, in cooperation with the General Administration of Customs, will step up measures that target the entire industrial chain of waste smuggling in accordance with the emerging characteristics.

The ministry will beef up the management of recycled raw material imports so that no waste will be smuggled through that channel, he noted.

He said the ministry will also set up an information-sharing mechanism with other government bodies as it endeavors to ramp up the supervision of solid waste from key maintenance service providers in bonded zones.

China started importing solid waste in the 1980s, back when it was considered a source of raw materials. Despite its relatively weak capacity for waste treatment, China was the world's largest solid waste importer for many years.

Against the backdrop of rising public awareness about environmental protection and the public's anxiety about pollution, the central government published an action plan in July 2017 to completely ban waste imports in 2021.