Capital toughens rules on transporting construction waste

Beijing established new guidelines, which went into effect on July 1, that place tough restrictions on vehicles transporting construction waste.

The new guidelines forbid vehicles from driving on roads if they do not have covers over the waste or if they don't have the waste safely piled in the bed of a truck.

There are more than 900 construction sites in the city, with some sites larger than 5,000 square meters, making the transportation of construction waste a major source of pollution.

The city departments of traffic and public security, as well as chengguan - or urban patrol officers - conducted a joint inspection in the early morning of July 1 to enforce the guidelines.

Of the 134 vehicles they examined, 43 were found in violation of the rules and were impounded. Authorities traced those vehicles back to their construction sites and the operating company in charge of the vehicles.

"We will keep the records and conduct further inspections on construction sites," said Geng Shuo, from the Beijing Bureau of City Administration and Law Enforcement, as quoted by Beijing Daily.

According to the new regulation, all vehicles in violation of the rules will be fined from 500 yuan ($81) to 3,000 yuan. Construction companies using such vehicles will be fined from 10,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan.

The ongoing investigation will last until the end of the year, Geng said.

To reduce pollutants during the transport of construction waste, the Beijing government is calling for fully enclosed containers for vehicles transporting construction waste and has allocated 280 million yuan to retrofit the vehicles. The first group of about 7,000 vehicles will be finished by the end of October.

The strict regulation has upset a number of transportation companies.

Ju Yu, manager of a transportation company in Beijing, said the retrofitted vehicles are nearly half the size of the originals. He said the company has spent nearly 4 million yuan to retrofit the vehicles, which has cut into his profits.

For all construction sites, there reportedly were surveillance cameras installed at exits and loading sites for vehicles by the end of June to allow city departments to monitor transport vehicles.

Beijing has meted out tougher punishments for companies that pollute the environment since the beginning of the year, opening up more than 960 cases involving illegal activities that pollute the environment by the end of June. The total amount of fines exceeded 26 million yuan during this period, according to the Beijing Commission of City Administration and Environment.