Chinese state TV releases plastic scrap crackdown figures

Steve Wong, the executive president of the China Scrap Plastic Association (CSPA) and a member of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Plastics Committee, has alerted fellow recyclers that a media report on a Chinese state television network has provided data on inspections carried out at plastics recycling facilities in that nation.

Wong says a report from CCTV 13 news broadcast Saturday, July 15, 2017, included information provided by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) with results of its month-long inspection campaign targeted against nearly 1,800 licensed factories with import permits for plastic scrap.

According to the report, through July 14 (representing the first 14 days if the month-long campaign), of the 1,792 establishments targeted:

• 888 locations had been inspected;
• 590 of them, or 66 percent, were found to have rules violations during inspection;
• 383 locations had their production suspended;
• 53 locations were determined to be closed;
• 349 locations have been put under investigation based on their rule violations; and
• at those 349 locations, 871 total violations were identified.

Factories with rules violations found can have their import permit applications suspended for one year, writes Wong.  He says the MEP will adopt a “strict rules-based approach in approving applications for import permits.”

The MEP also says it will maintain “stringent supervision measures [to] ensure gradual rule compliance [by all] factories.”