CMRA Forum: Balancing Environment and Economy in China

Li Xinmin, of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), speaking to the audience.

China’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which begins in 2012, includes the government’s attempt to play a balancing act well known in developed nations: protecting the environment without forfeiting manufacturing jobs.

Several government ministers who addressed the 2011 Secondary Metals International Forum, organized by the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch (CMRA), referred to the challenge of supporting manufacturing growth and the environment.

The five-year plan “achieves the combination of environmental, economic and societal benefits” said Li Jing of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC). She also acknowledged that there can be “conflict between economic development and environmental protection.”

Li touted as success stories both China’s nonferrous metals industry and its recycling efforts, saying more than 20 million people are employed in the two industries combined.

She also indicated that the twelfth five-year plan provides funding for both recycling technology and emissions controls, and that the secondary metals industry is seen as a critical part of the “circular economy” initiative.

Speaker Li Xinmin of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said Chinese president Hu Jintao has set as national priorities to “reduce pollution from the source and develop the circular economy.”

Li congratulated the secondary nonferrous metals industry on its “environmentally-friendly approach,” but said that new restrictions on emissions for furnace operators and dismantling for electronics recyclers are needed.

He also singled out the port of Hong Kong as being a point of entry for a “black market” in “solid waste” that is then shipped to mainland China. Lie said customs and licensing agencies are working in concert with MEP to “prevent the illegal importing of solid waste.”

A speaker representing China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said the recyclers gathered for the CMRA Forum can expect to see more vehicles and appliances “to be abandoned and enter the recycling stream” in the years ahead. He commented that that the scrap metals from this supply will “improve industrial supply” for the secondary nonferrous metals industry in China.

However, the MIIT official also remarked that the metals production industry was “still scattered around” and some companies were using “backward technology” such as crucible furnaces. He implied that some companies will not meet “certain technology requirements” as China makes moves to “standardize the industry.”

A speaker representing China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) also stated that providing low-pollution technology will be a priority of the twelfth five-year plan. “We need to strengthen smelting and refining technologies,” said the delegate from MOST.

The CMRA’s 11th Secondary Metals International Forum was in Guangzhou, China, Nov. 7-9, 2011.