National Development and Reform Commission: Promote Recycled Materials and Guarantee Land Supply for Resource Recycling Industry
The State Council Information Office held a regular policy briefing to introduce the details of the Action Plan for the Comprehensive Management of Solid Waste.
At the briefing, Zhou Haibing, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated that the NDRC, together with 25 other departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, had researched and drafted the Action Plan. Recently, the Action Plan has been submitted to the State Council for issuance and officially released to the public.
Zhou Haibing pointed out that developing the circular economy is crucial to the comprehensive management of solid waste.
Strengthening the comprehensive management of solid waste must follow the principles of reduction, resource utilization, and harmless disposal. Among these, reduction and resource utilization fully embody the concept of circular economy. Essentially, solid waste is a valuable resource misplaced, which has distinct resource attributes. For instance, smelting slag is rich in rare and precious metals; tailings, waste rocks, and construction waste can replace natural sand and gravel resources; and various recycled resources can be recovered from domestic waste after meticulous sorting.
By developing the circular economy and tapping deeply into the resource value of solid waste, we can turn waste into wealth and mitigate harm for beneficial purposes. This approach can not only improve the effectiveness of comprehensive management, but also enhance the capacity of resource security.
Zhou Haibing stated that the Action Plan puts forward clear requirements focusing on the source reduction, process control, and resource utilization of solid waste. It aims to foster the development of sustainable business models, leverage market forces to promote the development of circular economy, and thus support the comprehensive management of solid waste to achieve more significant results.
The specific measures mainly include the following four aspects:
First, strengthen comprehensive utilization. For solid wastes such as smelting slag, tailings, construction waste, and crop straw generated in industries, construction, agriculture and other fields, direct utilization shall be carried out without altering their properties to improve comprehensive utilization capacity. The priority is to enhance the efficient extraction and holistic utilization of high-value components contained therein, and continuously expand the channels for comprehensive utilization.
Second, tap into the potential of recycled resources. For various waste products and equipment generated from industrial production and social life, conduct refined dismantling to recover recycled resources such as plastics, metals, and glass. Further explore the potential of various urban mines, encourage the development of the "Internet + second-hand" model, vigorously promote the remanufacturing industry, and steadily advance the import and utilization of high-quality overseas recycled resources.
Third, promote the use of recycled materials. Through institutionalized and market-oriented approaches, incentivize and guide manufacturers to increase the proportion of recycled materials such as recycled metals, recycled plastics, and recycled pulp in their production. Establish and improve standards and certification systems for recycled materials, conduct research on the implementation of carbon footprint certification for recycled materials and their products, and promote the inclusion of recycled material application performance in the scope of corporate social responsibility.
Fourth, improve safeguard measures. Adopt a combination of supportive policies such as investment, technology, land use and taxation to foster sustainable business models. Coordinate existing funding channels to support the construction of eligible resource recycling and utilization projects. Strengthen R&D on key technologies for solid waste recycling and utilization, and conduct research on and tackle key problems of major technical equipment. Guide local governments to allocate no less than 1% of industrial land for supporting the construction of resource recycling and utilization facilities. Continue to promote the convenient measure of reverse invoicing by resource recovery enterprises to natural persons who sell end-of-life products.
Zhou Haibing also disclosed that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will take the lead in formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Circular Economy this year. The plan will further clarify the development goals and tasks of circular economy in key fields, arrange key initiatives for the recycling and utilization of traditional recycled resources, rare and precious metals, and the "Three New Categories" (referring to new types of solid waste such as power batteries for new energy vehicles, photovoltaic modules, and wind turbine blades), and improve the support system. The aim is to further enhance resource utilization efficiency, strengthen resource security guarantees, support green and low-carbon transformation, and promote the high-quality development of circular economy to achieve continuous new results.
