RePlas 2014: Crime and punishment

China’s Operation Green Fence may be in the headlines less than it was in 2012 and 2013, but government agencies are by no means loosening restrictions or the resulting punishments for off-spec scrap shipments, according to speakers at the RePlas 2014 (autumn) event.
 

Zhou Yachun of the Department of Customs Control and Inspection of China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) told delegates to the conference that “after Green Fence [we] constructed a long-term mechanism” and that GAC has maintained “certain measures and policies.”
 

Green Fence involved “very forceful measures,” said Zhou. “We kept those effective measures and regulations and adjusted some measures that were too strict.”
 

Another speaker, this one from GAC’s Bureau of Anti-Smuggling, warned or reminded the assembled recyclers that as of Sept. 10, 2014, certain Customs violations are “not just a legal problem but a crime. I have to warn all the leaders of the companies that you have to pay attention to this.”
 

The Bureau of Anti-Smuggling speaker referred to GAC Article 152, which now identifies “solid waste smuggling” as a severe crime that could mean “prison for up to five years” for those responsible, or more than five years for quantities of more than 20 metric tons of material.
 

According to the www.npc.gov.cn website, the paragraph added to Article 152 reads:
 

“Whoever, evading Customs supervision and control, transports solid waste, liquid waste or gaseous waste from outside China into the territory of China, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years and shall in addition, or shall only, be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and shall in addition be fined.”
 

Crimes may involve poor quality material, said the Bureau of Anti-Smuggling speaker, or they could pertain to the misuse of an import license. Importing “without permission” also means “using the wrong permit, including one that is rented, borrowed or purchased form someone else,” he remarked.
 

Zhou of GAC said plastics recyclers remain in the spotlight, in part because of media reports in China that single out mixed plastic shipments as “foreign garbage.” He also said, “There are too many [plastic scrap] nonconforming shipments, and that’s the issue the media cares about the most.”
 

Regarding mixed plastic scrap imports, Zhou said, “The appearance can be really bad, so journalists like to write stories about plastic scrap.”
 

The RePlas 2014 (autumn) event, organized by the China Scrap Plastics Association (CSPA), was Nov. 6-7 at the Coli Hotel in Shenzhen, China.