Crackdown on foreign garbage

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-05 07:58

Customs officials across the country have been ordered to check every container labeled "waste" after mountains of discarded foreign garments were found in the coastal area of Guangdong province.

The General Administration of Customs said the move is an extension of an ongoing crackdown on discarded foreign garments in South China's Guangdong province, which aims to prevent illegal materials being smuggled into the country.

Last month, media exposed the trade in illegally imported, used clothing in Lufeng, Guangdong province, which local people would sell for illegal profits, sometimes after repairing.

From Oct 20 to the end of last month, local authorities seized more than 300 tons of discarded foreign clothing in Lufeng's Jieshi town, a major hub for the illegal garment industry.

The administration said these clothes were smuggled into China, as dumped clothes are banned from entry.

The new rules will keep customs officials busy.

At ports equipped with scanning devices, containers must go through the machine one by one. At ports without such equipment, inspectors must open each container and conduct manual checks, the administration said in a statement sent to China Daily yesterday.

China allows the import of certain waste to be used as raw materials. Currently, such containers receive random border checks based on risk analysis.

In the near future, waste will need to be packaged according to category, instead of being mixed together.

The administration also plans to designate certain ports to receive wastes, the statement said.

According to a regulation issued last year, 54 categories of waste are allowed into China, such as paper and scrap iron or steel. However, 69 kinds of waste are banned, including dumped garments.

He Fan, a senior researcher with the world economics and politics institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said legal waste is usually used as raw materials.

He said research has shown that producing a ton of copper requires 150 tons of copper ore, 600 tons of water and 16,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, but producing a ton of recycled metal needs only 23 kg of water and power produced by 1.74 kg of coal.

"Allowing the import of such waste can greatly reduce our energy consumption," he said. "But the problem is some people always try to smuggle banned waste into China, attracted by high profits."

Figures from the General Administration of Customs show customs nationwide have seized more than 20,000 tons of banned waste since the beginning of 2007, including more than 1,600 tons of dumped clothes.

He said the new move by customs will help reject illegal waste at the border, but it may also take longer for legal waste to get through customs.

He said the impact would be minor for companies that have strictly followed China's rules and regulations, but for those who often try to play around, it could be huge.

He Fangming, vice-chairman of China Resource Recycling Association, said the management system of imported waste has loopholes.

Currently, the management involves multiple government agencies, including environmental protection departments, customs, industry and commerce administrations as well as quality and quarantine authorities.

"The system results in insufficient information exchange and sometimes overlapping responsibilities, which offers smugglers loopholes," he said.