Posted on 25 Jan 2022
To accelerate the progress in setting up waste materials recycling system in China, the country's top economic planning authority - National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), together with six other ministries, will coordinate in identifying 60 cities nationwide for the recycling pilot program, according to a notice on NDRC's official website on January 21.
The criteria in finalizing these 60 cities are medium and large in size, comparatively developed in economy and rather populous, the notice states, adding that the selection will be finalized by the 31 governments at the provincial, municipal or autonomous regional levels in the Chinese mainland and submitted to NDRC by February 18.
Once confirmed, the selected cities will need to work out detailed execution plans by the end of April on how to set up a rather complete and comprehensive recycle and reuse system citywide by 2025 targeting waste materials such as steel scrap, copper, aluminum, lead and zinc scrap, waste paper, plastics, rubber, and glasses.
As part of the recycling system, these cities should also set up related regulatory systems and related markets to facilitate the trading of second-hand goods among citizens in an orderly manner, according to the notice.
Every November, these 60 cities will be requested to submit an annual progress report to upper-level authorities including the ministries and NDRC to facilitate the monitoring and timely finetuning their development plans if necessary.
Among the 31 provincial-level jurisdictions, 10 including Hebei, Jiangsu, and Shandong - the country's top three steelmaking provinces in terms of output in 2021 - have been asked to pick up three cities, and the other 21 assigned with a quota of one or two cities, according to the attachment in the notice.
The initiative has been in line with Beijing' intention to develop circular economy and to strive for quality development, and this will also help relieve China's heavy reliance on imported raw materials such as iron ore or copper concentrates, Mysteel Global understands.
In 2021, China imported 1.12 billion tonnes of iron ore, still rather high despite a 3.9% on-year decline, and Beijing has been calling for higher self-sufficiency in steelmaking raw materials via domestic mining capacity expansion and higher steel scrap utilization during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and onwards, as reported.
As for copper, a key base metal in China's economy including power transmission, property development, auto and home appliances making, the country imported 23.4 million tonnes of copper concentrates last year, or up 7.6% on year, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
