Ministry of Commerce: Piloting Recycling System for Renewable Resources

Pilot cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have promoted new recycling models such as the sale of self-help waste and recycling hotlines. In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce has played a guiding role for the government in the market, established a working mechanism, and strengthened the industry's basic work, and launched a pilot project for the construction of a recycling system for renewable resources.

Yao Jian explained that as of the end of 2013, there were more than 100,000 renewable energy recycling companies in the society, and over 80% were small and medium-sized enterprises. According to preliminary statistics, in 2013, the recovery of seven major varieties of scrap steel, waste plastics, waste non-ferrous metals, waste paper, waste tires, scrapped automobiles, and waste electrical and electronic products was close to 160 million tons, which was more than three times higher than in 2000; Nearly 600 billion yuan, 12 times more than in 2000. The recovery rate of scrap steel, waste nonferrous metals, and waste electrical and electronic products reached over 70%. The recovery of renewable resources in 2013, replacing the corresponding natural resources, is equivalent to saving 170 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 400 million tons.

Yao Jian said that the Ministry of Commerce will continue to actively play the role of the leading unit of the inter-ministerial joint meeting for the recycling of used products, focusing on four major areas:

The first is to accelerate the construction of laws and regulations standards system. We will improve laws and regulations on recycling of renewable resources, speed up the issuance of the medium and long-term plan for the recycling of renewable resources, increase the implementation of existing industry standards, increase the proportion of mandatory standards, and formulate a catalogue of recycling resources to guide the development of the industry.

The second is to do a good job of recovery of key varieties. According to the principles of classification and management, the role of the market mechanism is fully utilized for high-value products such as scrap steel and waste non-ferrous metals; policy support is also given to those that have low value such as waste glass and discarded energy-saving lamps, and are difficult to play a role in market mechanisms. Strengthen and encourage the society to actively participate in the recycling; for waste lead-acid batteries, waste electrical and electronic products, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, with the relevant departments to implement the producer responsibility extension system.

The third is to improve the degree of organization of the industry. Promote the construction of industry organizations, improve public services and community services; encourage leading enterprises to integrate small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed households in accordance with the laws of market economy with modern organizational methods, and use modern information technology to increase the scale and organizational level of renewable resource recovery industries.

The fourth is to encourage technological innovation in enterprises. We will promote the development of specialized technologies and equipment for sorting, processing, processing, and utilization of renewable resources that are suitable for China's national conditions, with independent intellectual property rights, and intensify efforts in enterprise information construction to study and establish an industry management information system.