The Chinese government is closely watching the progress of
investigation into the dumping of garbage in south China by Britain
and is preparing to crackdown on illegal imports, said an official
Wednesday.
Recent media reports on British garbage shipped to Guangdong
Province has drawn the attention of the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA), the unnamed SEPA official
said.
The administration had ordered Guangdong environmental
authorities to launch an immediate investigation and sent an
inspection team to Lianjiao Village in Foshan City.
The move followed an investigative report on Britain's Sky News
TV titled "Are you poisoning China?", revealing how British plastic
waste ended up in Lianjiao.
The Chinese media has reported that China exports 16 billion
pounds of goods to the United Kingdom every year and receives 1.9
million tons of rubbish in return.
Located at an industrial zone in Foshan's Nanhai District,
Lianjiao has become a processing center of plastic waste since the
1970s.
Investigations found that Lianjiao receives up to 200,000 tons
of plastic waste every year, 80 percent of which was collected from
domestic sources and the rest was suspected to be imported from
overseas.
"No official approval for importing garbage has been granted to
any company in this zone," the official said.
Domestic media exposed illegal rubbish imports to Lianjiao in
September 2006. The Guangdong provincial government then urged the
Foshan government and the provincial environmental protection
department to investigate.
The local government has banned unlicensed businesses and
individuals from importing plastic waste, and suspended operations
at plastic waste processing factories that are not equipped with
environmental protection facilities. Companies that incinerate
trash or occupy public venues to store the waste were punished.
The government attaches great importance to the management of
imported wastes, and strictly abides by the Basel Convention on the
Control of Transboundry Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their
Disposal which took effect in May 1992, the SEPA official said.
Chinese law on the control of solid wastes explicitly bans
imports of solid wastes that cannot be used as raw materials or be
recycled by harmless means. Imports of waste that can be used as
raw materials are limited and categorized by registration.
"However, driven by profits, some dealers smuggle or associate
with overseas organizations and illegally bring foreign garbage to
China, endangering public health and the environment," said the
official.
The SEPA had been negotiating with European Union agencies on
the prevention and crackdown of illegal transboundry movements of
waste.
It will also work with other government departments to improve
regulations and standards regarding waste imports, enhance
supervision in processing waste and fight waste smuggling, said the
official.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)
