Beijing area focused on tackling waste ‘threat’

China – Beijing and its surrounding municipalities and provinces have launched a joint resource recycling project to handle the build-up in the region’€™s industrial waste. By 2017, the aim is for the initiative to process up to 400 million tonnes of material per year.

This major economic hub produced 2.37 billion tonnes of bulky industrial solid waste in 2014 when including that generated in nearby Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, thus representing 70% of the country’s total waste of this type.

The aim for the coming years is to develop an industry capable of recycling 20 million tonnes of resources annually, with an output value estimated at 220 billion yuan (US$ 35.4 billion) by 2017.

According to Mao Weiming, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the project’s benefits are threefold: fostering new economic growth; alleviating environmental and resource restrictions; and promoting regional co-ordinated development. Resource recycling is a ‘fundamental solution’ to the industrial waste ‘threat’ in China, MIIT officials insist. ‘Severe’ obstacles to be overcome include technological difficulties and lack of integration.