
Several anti-pollution efforts underway in China will create regulatory scrutiny for secondary metals producers and recyclers in China, according to representatives of government ministries who made presentations at the 2016 CMRA (China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch) Annual Convention in early November.
Ma Rong of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) sold convention attendees that the government will continue to encourage mergers of nonferrous metals producers as a way to retire older production sites that do not possess good emissions controls systems. “Lots of enterprises will be eliminated in this development,” said Ma, as the government enforces “more stringent environmental standards.”
Ling Jiang of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said the MEP continues to be concerned about “foreign garbage” making its way into China. Some MEP programs will target increased collection of domestic scrap materials as a way to decrease the need to bring in low-quality materials shipments from overseas, said Ling.
Wu Guanglong, also from China’s MEP, said the Basel Convention and other international agreements require China to be mindful of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as dioxin, when regulating its own industries and the flow of scrap materials that arrive in China.
He said the metallurgy industry represents 45% of China’s POP air emissions, meaning secondary metals producers in the nation will be monitored closely by the MEP and other agencies. Within the metallurgy sector, said Wu, secondary metals producers “have been listed as one of the six key controlled sectors.”
Wu said new emissions standards coming into effect in January 2017 have been designed “to encourage the elimination of backward capacity” in the sector. “I encourage and invite you to pay attention to these standards,” he said to metals producers in the audience. He also gave his opinion that the industry overall “is not paying enough attention to these standards.”
The 2016 CMRA Annual Convention was 7-9 November at the Dongfang Hotel in Guangzhou, China.
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