Fresh Guidelines to Minimize Plastic Waste and Boost Recycling

China will promote construction of large number of plastic recycling facilities.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The new set of guidelines, released jointly by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment proposes wide-ranging measures aimed at minimizing plastic waste and enhancing recycling. The document outlines proposals to discourage use of disposable plastic products.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) aims to launch a green design standard, aimed at reducing the complexity of plastic components. Such efforts will make plastics more recyclable, the document said. Consequently, secondary packaging will be completely eliminated from e-commerce as well as express delivery sectors.

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China will promote construction of large number of plastic recycling facilities. In addition, it also plans to focus on construction of more number of incineration facilities to treat domestic waste. The setting up of new landfills in cities above prefecture-level will also be discouraged.

The document calls for ramped up efforts to clean up plastic waste in inland water bodies and in the oceans. Also, it recommends using other alternatives such as bamboo, wood, paper and degradable plastics for food packaging, thereby preventing plastics from ending up in landfills.