The General Office of Quanzhou Municipal People's Government issued the Implementation Plan for the Construction of Quanzhou's Waste Materials Recycling System on September 15, 2023, specifying that by 2025, a comprehensively systematic waste materials recycling system will be basically established. The target for waste textiles processing and utilization is 90,000 tons, the number of recycling outlets will increase to 1,363 (including 560 intelligent sorting and recycling machines), and the number of recycling enterprises will reach 1,077.

Key Points

  • As of the end of 2022, Quanzhou's waste textiles processing and utilization volume was 80,000 tons, with the 2025 target raised to 90,000 tons.
  • The 2025 target for citywide recycling outlets is 1,363 (including 560 intelligent sorting and recycling machines), 1,077 recycling enterprises, and 1.95 million tons of major waste materials recycled.
  • The plan explicitly encourages the development of the "Internet Plus Second-hand" model, guides second-hand goods trading enterprises to integrate online and offline channels, and explores the digitalization of waste materials sorting centers.

Construction Foundation and Existing Inventory

Quanzhou is one of the three major central cities in Fujian Province, with a permanent population of 8.879 million at the end of 2022 and a full-year GDP of 1,210.297 billion yuan. As of the end of 2022, the city had 986 waste materials recycling enterprises, 795 recycling stations, 13 sorting centers, and 260 intelligent sorting and recycling machines. In terms of regional distribution, Jinjiang concentrated 526 recycling enterprises and 419 recycling stations, making it the area with the densest waste materials recycling network in the city.

In the recycling material structure, waste paper and scrap steel have the largest volumes. In 2022, the city's total waste materials recycling volume was approximately 1.68 million tons, with processing and utilization of approximately 2.8 million tons, including 1.36 million tons of waste paper processing and utilization, 800,000 tons of scrap steel, 210,000 tons of waste plastics, 200,000 tons of waste glass, 100,000 tons of scrap copper, 80,000 tons of waste textiles, and 50,000 tons of waste rubber. Quanzhou has a deep foundation in the textile and apparel industry, and the plan specifically mentions that the locality has already formed good technological and industrial scale advantages in areas such as recycled polyester production, polyester staple fiber production, and modified recycled materials. There are 11 key processing and utilization enterprises, including Dongfeng Rubber, Baichuan, and Jieyuan.

Main Targets for 2025

The specific targets proposed in the plan cover two dimensions: the recycling network and processing and utilization. On the recycling end, the plan is to build 1,363 outlets, with intelligent sorting and recycling machines increasing significantly from 260 to 560; 14 sorting centers to be newly built or renovated, including 2 digital sorting centers; and express packaging waste recycling devices expanded from 400 to 600.

On the processing and utilization end, the total planned processing volume is 5.07 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of 13%. By category: 1.8 million tons of scrap steel (the largest increment), waste paper maintained at 1.36 million tons, 600,000 tons of waste glass, 390,000 tons of waste plastics, 250,000 tons of scrap copper, 220,000 tons of scrap aluminum, 100,000 tons of waste rubber, 90,000 tons of waste textiles, and 30,000 tons of waste batteries; 200,000 tons of waste electronic and electrical appliances dismantled, and 20,000 end-of-life motor vehicles dismantled. The target for key waste materials processing and utilization enterprises is increased to 15.

Measures Directly Related to Textiles and Second-hand Circulation

In terms of improving the recycling network, the plan uses Fengze District as a pilot, deploying one set of intelligent sorting and recycling machines per 1,000 households, implementing paid recycling for waste plastics, waste metals, waste textiles, waste glass, etc., and encouraging recycling enterprises to expand the coverage of intelligent recycling facilities in communities, commercial districts, and public institutions. At the source classification level, it promotes the "two-network integration" of domestic waste classification outlets and waste materials recycling outlets.

In terms of promoting the standardization of second-hand goods trading, the plan explicitly encourages the development of the "Internet Plus Second-hand" model in Quanzhou, supports second-hand goods trading enterprises in achieving online appointments and door-to-door recycling through mobile apps, WeChat official accounts, and other channels, and guides the integration of online and offline channels. At the same time, it requires standardizing the operation of second-hand trading platforms, exercising control over multiple aspects including user onboarding, information publishing, transaction security, after-sales guarantees, penalty for violations, and dispute resolution, raising entry thresholds, implementing real-name authentication, strengthening seller qualification review, and exploring the establishment of a credit system for second-hand goods enterprises.

The plan also proposes accelerating the integration of the Internet with the waste materials recycling industry, building an "Internet Plus Recycling" intelligent platform, encouraging the digitalization of sorting centers, and achieving visibility, traceability, and controllability throughout the entire waste materials process.

From an industrial layout perspective, Nan'an, Shishi, and Dehua have been listed as pilot units for the province's renewable resource recycling system construction. Shishi is a national circular economy demonstration city, the Dehua Ceramics Industrial Park and Quangang Petrochemical Industrial Park are national-level circular transformation demonstration pilots, and the Fujian Haixi Renewable Resources Industrial Park is a national-level "Urban Mineral" demonstration base. These existing qualifications provide industrial park support for Quanzhou to advance waste textiles processing and utilization and the construction of a second-hand circulation system.

Industry Significance

As a major textile and apparel manufacturing hub in China, Quanzhou's 2023 inclusion of waste textiles in the circular utilization system with quantified targets and second-hand trading standardization tasks means its target data, recycling category proportions, and textile regeneration technology pathways can serve as a reference sample for textile industry clusters along the southeast coast exploring the coordinated development of second-hand circulation and textile recycling.

Source: Notice of the General Office of Quanzhou Municipal People's Government on Issuing the Implementation Plan for the Construction of Quanzhou's Waste Materials Recycling System - Annual Plan - Planning Plans - Government Affairs Disclosure - Quanzhou Municipal People's Government · Originally published on 2023-10-10