Obtaining a licence from the local environmental authorities is mandatory for any company that treats medical waste, the State Environmental Protection Administration stated yesterday.

The licensing is part of governmental regulations on medical waste management, which was enacted by the State Council and came into effect on June 16.

Anyone who undertakes illegal medical waste treatment will receive severe punishment, the administration said in a circular yesterday.

The circular said equipment used for transporting, storing and treating medical waste must meet the nation's environmental, health and safety standards.

Although medical waste is at the top of the national list of hazardous waste materials, many people see it as an easy source for generating profits.

According to a report on China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday, some people scavenge for used medical equipment such as plastic syringes and blood transfusion bags from the bins at Changfeng Hospital in Beijing.

Some of the waste collected is sent to a plastic waste market in Wen'an County in North China's Hebei Province, where the plastic is used in the manufacture of barrels and bottles.

Workers at one of the processing plants said such products are used for wine, other drinks and food such as pickles.

The treatment of medical waste has not been given enough attention and there is a lack of investment, according to Fan Yuansheng, vice-director of the administration's pollution control department, who was quoted by a Xinhua News Agency report.

For example, more than 40 tons of medical waste are produced in Beijing every day, but there used to be only two incinerators and their combined capacity was 10 tons a day.

The situation improved after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), when the capital introduced 16 incinerating devices, which can handle 29 tons of medical waste a day, the Xinhua report stated.

The report added that medical waste in most cities, with a few exceptions like Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Dalian and Shenyang, are simply mixed and treated together with daily waste.

A good sign is that over the next two or three years, the central government will invest more than 7 billion yuan (US$846 million) to provide treatment equipment so that all medical waste in the country can be collected and treated.

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