China reveals illegal waste activity

China – In the first quarter of 2014, Chinese customs officials are said to have investigated 20 cases of solid waste smuggling which involved electronic waste, scrap plastics, used textiles and scrap slag.

Within the framework of the country’s Green Fence import control initiative, national customs investigated a total of 2606 solid waste importing and processing companies.

They found issues with 586 enterprises and illegality problems with 617 enterprises, with 4.2 million tonnes of solid waste being investigated and carrying a total value of Yuan 120 million (US$ 19 million). Some 245 cases were handed over to anti-smuggling officials and 261 cases were reported to MEP and AQSIQ.  Of the companies caught in illegal acts, 350 were scrap plastic enterprises while 118 were engaged in scrap metals and a further 118 in recovered paper.

According to Chinese customs officials, illegal acts included: imports without proper authorisation (183 cases); sales of solid waste without authorisation (145 cases); underquoting and misrepresenting volumes (64 cases); and smuggling of ‘foreign garbage’ (six cases).