A senior environment official on Friday pledged more government
support for efforts to develop the nation's fledgling e-waste
recycling industry.
Li Jing, an environment official with the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC), told an e-waste treatment forum in
Beijing hosted by Fuji Xerox (China) that the sector is currently
unable to compete with the large number of individual e-waste
collectors.
But she said she believed that with the peak of electronic
product disposal approaching, the heightening of public awareness
of environmental protection and the establishment of a
comprehensive e-waste treatment industry, this situation would be
resolved.
And she said that the government would work out more measures,
such as preferential tax policies and the allocation of treasury
bonds, to encourage the development of the industry.
The government has chosen Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao in Shandong
Province and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province as pilot cities to run
e-waste treatment plants, which have its support in terms of tax,
funds and technology.
In recent years, as a result of the development of the circular
economy and the soaring price of raw materials, many enterprises
have taken up e-waste recycling, such as Fuji Xerox.
The Japan-based high-tech company will have an integrated
material recycling system up and running next year at its plant in
Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province.
In the system, the company can realize zero landfill, no
pollution and no illegal disposal after the treatment of scrap
equipment, according to Yuji Otake, president of Fuji Xerox
Eco-Manufacturing (Suzhou) Co Ltd.
Li Jing said China welcomed the introduction of such e-waste
treatment technology, which will help alleviate pressures in this
regard.
Li Xiangnong, an official from the State Environmental
Protection Administration, said that the Chinese people currently
owned a total of 1.2 billion of televisions, air conditioners,
washing machines, refrigerators and computers. Every year, about 50
million of these are disposed, resulting in 1.2 million tons of
waste.
(China Daily November 12, 2007)
