Sixty cities have been included in the list of key cities for building a waste material recycling system, with standardized collection facilities for waste textiles explicitly listed as part of the coordinated advancement of recycling network construction, while the policy also promotes the development of both online and offline second-hand goods trading. Jin Xiandong, director of the Policy Research Office and spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), disclosed this information at the NDRC's August 16 press conference, and made clear that by 2025 these 60 cities should take the lead in building a relatively complete waste material recycling system.

Key Points

  • Sixty cities including Beijing were selected for the list of key cities for building a waste material recycling system, with the selection taking into account population and economic and social development levels, the volume of waste materials generated, the foundation for the "two-network integration" of domestic waste sorting and recycling collection points, and regional balance.
  • Three key tasks: improving the waste material recycling network, enhancing the processing and utilization level of renewable resources, and promoting the development of second-hand goods trading; standardized collection facilities for plastic waste and waste textiles are listed as key contents of recycling network construction.
  • The target deadline is 2025. The NDRC will work with relevant departments to coordinate existing funding channels to support key projects, and will hold on-site experience exchange meetings in due course to promote typical practices.

The policy basis for the list of key cities can be traced back to the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Building of a Waste Material Recycling System issued earlier this year, and the notice on the list was recently issued by the General Office of the NDRC and other departments. Jin Xiandong said that establishing and improving a waste material recycling system is of great significance for raising the level of resource recycling, enhancing resource security capacity, promoting green and low-carbon circular development, and helping achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. He stressed that the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee has clearly required accelerating the building of this system, and the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan includes "carrying out the building of a waste material recycling system in 60 large and medium-sized cities" among its 102 major engineering projects.

In the recycling network, a foundational and critical link, the policy requires focusing on building large-scale, networked, and intelligent standardized recycling stations, green sorting centers, and green trading centers, incorporating standardized collection facilities for plastic waste and waste textiles into coordinated advancement, and promoting the construction of placement and recycling infrastructure for recyclable express packaging in cities where conditions permit. In terms of processing and utilization, key cities are guided to promote the clustered development of the renewable resource processing and utilization industry in light of local conditions, increase the promotion of advanced technology and equipment, and improve the industry's "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" situation.

Second-hand goods trading was listed as a separate task. The policy requires key cities to actively build various forms of second-hand goods trading channels and promote the simultaneous development of online and offline second-hand trading. At the same time, it encourages the building of high-quality auto parts remanufacturing projects and explores remanufacturing projects in new fields such as aircraft, aero engines, and industrial robots. In terms of supporting measures, it requires improving the policy guarantee system, strengthening factor guarantees such as land, increasing investment and financial policy support, and strengthening industry supervision and management.

For the waste textiles and second-hand clothing industry, this list means that the construction of collection facilities on the recycling network end will enter the implementation and advancement stage in 60 cities, and second-hand goods circulation channels have also been included in the scope of local policy promotion. In addition, the NDRC also introduced progress on other economic topics at the press conference. Data from the same event showed that 963,000 small and medium-sized service enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households had rent reduced or exempted by 38.3 billion yuan, and 12.803 million service industry market entities had social insurance premiums reduced or exempted by 66.92 billion yuan; 300 billion yuan was raised through policy-based and developmental financial instruments by issuing financial bonds and other means, to supplement project capital in key infrastructure areas.

Source: How do key cities build a waste material recycling system? NDRC answers National Business Daily: Improve the recycling network and promote the development of second-hand goods trading _ East Money · Originally published on 2022-08-16