Society

20% of paper mills infringe environmental laws

By Zhao Chunzhe (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-07 11:37

About 20 percent of the paper mills in China were found to infringe the environmental protection laws, according to a report announced by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Beijing Times cited today.

The ministry decided to suspend environment influence assessing for paper mill projects in five seriously polluted cities, said the report.

The ministry inspected 461 paper companies across 53 cities nationwide, and found 21 percent of those breaking the environmental protection laws and another 312 factories discharging pollutants that exceeded stipulated standards.

The ministry urged all companies that broke laws to adjust their production process and pay fines, or they will face closure, said Tao Detian, spokesman of the ministry.