China's Operation Green Fence policy to expire this month

BEIJING (Scrap Monster) : China’s Operation Green Fence is set to come to an end this month, after setting strict standards on scrap imports into the country. The policy which came into effect last February was implemented in various phases. Currently in its third phase named ‘Goddess of the Earth’, officials are conducting rigorous checking at the point of import and point of origin. The last phase of the programme will extend by one more month and will come to an end by December.

According to Chinese officials, even after December, the systems will continue to remain in place to ensure that illegal solid waste is not imported into the country. At the same time, legal businesses will be provided every opportunity to flourish in the country. The existing scrap recycling regulations will be strictly implemented to the benefit of the scrap industry.

The country implemented ‘Operation Green Fence’ as a 10-month effort by China’s national customs agency “to strengthen the supervision” of environmental standards, whereby Chinese customs officials carried out stricter checking on container loads arriving at its port. The operation focused on random inspection of all forms of “imported waste,” which includes metallic, plastic, textiles, rubber and recovered paper materials.

The primary objective behind implementing the operation was to prevent dumping of contaminated waste in the country. Alongside, ‘Operation Green Fence’ has also forced the local industry to upgrade to higher, cleaner standards.