State Council on Research and Handling of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law Enforcement Inspection Report

and Review Opinion Report

——On June 21, 2022, at the 35th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress

Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu

Standing Committee of the National People's Congress:

In accordance with the work arrangements of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, entrusted by the State Council, the following report is made on the research and handling of the enforcement inspection report of the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law (hereinafter referred to as the Solid Waste Law) and the review opinions, please review.

The prevention and control of solid waste pollution is closely linked to pollution reduction and carbon reduction, is an important part of ecological civilization construction, and is also a key task in the fight against pollution. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to this, and General Secretary Xi Jinping has made important instructions and directives multiple times, requiring a comprehensive ban on foreign garbage entering the country, the universal implementation of waste classification systems, effective and orderly governance of plastic pollution, and a severe crackdown on illegal activities that harm the environment with hazardous waste. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out in the "Government Work Report" that solid waste and new pollutant governance should be strengthened, and waste classification and reduction, resource utilization should be promoted. Vice Premier Han Zheng and other leaders have put forward clear work requirements.

The 13th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has made the enforcement inspection of the Solid Waste Law a key task for supervision in 2021, with Chairman Li Zhanshu personally serving as the leader of the inspection team to carry out enforcement inspections, effectively promoting the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Solid Waste Law, providing strong legal protection for the fight against pollution.

In accordance with the work deployment of the State Council, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and 25 other departments and units, has established a list of rectification measures including six categories and a total of 64 issues, in accordance with the enforcement inspection report of the Solid Waste Law and the review opinions, combining immediate rectification with regular and long-term governance, and ensuring the implementation of the law item by item.

1. On Deepening the Study and Implementation of Xi Jinping's Ecological Civilization Thought, Promoting Green, Low-Carbon, and Circular Development

(1) Firmly implement the important instructions and directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping. First, continuously consolidate the achievements of the ban on foreign garbage entering the country. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment strengthens the management of the identification of solid waste attributes of imported goods, strictly controls the import of recycled raw materials, and resolutely prevents disguised imports of solid waste. The General Administration of Customs continues to strengthen control and resolutely crack down on the smuggling of foreign garbage. In 2021, customs across the country investigated and handled 110 cases of smuggling waste crimes, verifying 42,000 tons of waste involved. Second, solidly promote the classification of household waste. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with relevant parties, supervises and guides localities to promote the classification of household waste in accordance with the law. In 2021, 297 cities at the prefecture level and above across the country have carried out household waste classification work, with an average coverage rate of 77% in residential communities, and 66,000 classified transport vehicles have been configured, further enhancing classified transport capacity. Third, strengthen the governance of the entire chain of plastic pollution. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Governance Action Plan" and carried out joint special actions for plastic pollution governance. The Ministry of Commerce organized the reporting work on the use and recycling of disposable plastic products. The production of disposable foam plastic tableware and plastic cotton swabs has basically stopped, and the usage rate of recyclable transfer bags in the postal and express delivery industry exceeds 90%. Fourth, steadily promote the construction of "waste-free cities." The Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for the Construction of Waste-Free Cities during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period," promoting about 100 cities at the prefecture level and above to carry out the construction of waste-free cities. Zhejiang and Jiangsu are promoting the construction of waste-free cities throughout the region, Guangdong is carrying out the construction of a "waste-free bay area," and the Chengdu-Chongqing area has launched the co-construction of a "waste-free city" in the dual-city economic circle.

(2) Adhere to systematic, precise, and lawful governance, and implement the principles of "three reductions" (reduction, resource utilization, harmlessness) into the relevant arrangements and deployments of the 14th Five-Year Plan. First, strengthen source reduction. The State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction," implementing key projects for energy conservation and emission reduction, and promoting a comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development," revised and improved the normative conditions for the copper smelting, aluminum, lead-zinc, and magnesium industries, legally and in accordance with regulations eliminated backward production capacity, and comprehensively promoted clean production. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, issued the "Waste-Free City Construction Indicator System (2021 Edition)," incorporating the intensity of industrial solid waste generation into the mandatory indicators for waste-free city construction, supporting source reduction of solid waste. Relevant localities are actively studying source governance mechanisms, and places like Guizhou have introduced policies for phosphorus chemical enterprises to "determine production based on waste." Second, promote resource utilization. The State Council issued the "Action Plan for Carbon Peaking Before 2030," clearly stating that by 2025, the annual utilization of bulk solid waste will reach about 4 billion tons, and the resource utilization rate of household waste will increase to about 60%. With the consent of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy Development," promoting localities to strengthen resource conservation and intensive utilization, and comprehensively improve resource utilization efficiency. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and other departments issued guiding opinions on accelerating the construction of a recycling system for waste materials, implementation plans for accelerating the promotion of comprehensive utilization of industrial resources, and development plans for urban sewage treatment and resource utilization during the 14th Five-Year Plan, promoting the construction of 100 comprehensive utilization demonstration bases and backbone enterprises for bulk solid waste, and 60 bases for comprehensive utilization of industrial resources, with a clear goal of achieving a harmless disposal rate of urban sludge of over 90% by 2025. Third, enhance harmless governance capabilities. The General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for Strengthening the Supervision and Utilization of Hazardous Waste Disposal Capabilities," and the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments released the "Development Plan for the Classification and Treatment Facilities of Urban Household Waste during the 14th Five-Year Plan," promoting key areas and key fields to accelerate the filling of gaps in environmental infrastructure construction. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, has compiled and issued a series of special plans and action plans, coordinating the promotion of solid waste governance with the prevention and control of pollution from water, air, soil, and other environmental factors. By the end of 2021, the national centralized utilization and disposal capacity of hazardous waste was about 170 million tons/year, 3.3 times that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan; the national centralized disposal capacity of medical waste was 2.15 million tons/year, a 39% increase compared to 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next, relevant departments will continue to deeply implement the important instructions and directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping, fully implement the various arrangements and deployments for solid waste pollution prevention and control during the 14th Five-Year Plan, continuously integrate solid waste pollution prevention and control with carbon peaking, carbon neutrality, and green low-carbon circular development, adhere to the coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening, and growth, and solidly advance the implementation of the Solid Waste Law. At the same time, with the construction of "waste-free cities" as a starting point, promote the establishment of a modern governance system for solid waste, formulate a work plan to deepen and consolidate the ban on foreign garbage entering the country, strengthen the governance of the entire chain of plastic pollution, further promote the reform of hazardous waste supervision and utilization disposal capabilities, and better leverage the potential for synergistic effects of solid waste reduction, resource utilization, and harmlessness in reducing pollution and carbon.

2. On Accelerating the Advancement of the Rule of Law and Improving Supporting Regulations and Standards

(1) Improve supporting laws and regulations. Relevant departments actively promote the revision of the management measures for hazardous waste operating licenses and the interim regulations on express delivery. Deeply implement the relevant requirements of the Solid Waste Law, and successively release departmental regulations such as the "Management Measures for the Transfer of Hazardous Waste" and the "Management Measures for the Prevention and Control of Tailings Pollution," focusing on preventing and controlling environmental risks in key areas.

(2) Improve the standard policy system. The State Administration for Market Regulation, in conjunction with relevant departments, will issue national standards for the collection, transportation, and treatment of rural domestic waste, the recycling and utilization of solid waste containing non-ferrous metals, the regeneration treatment of waste lead-acid batteries, and the recycling and utilization of vehicle power batteries, further improving the standard system for solid waste recycling and treatment. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will issue ecological environment standards for the application and issuance of industrial solid waste discharge permits, pollution control for the treatment of waste lithium-ion power batteries, and manganese slag pollution control, and will publish a list of hazardous waste exclusion management and identification work procedures, cooperating with the National Health Commission to revise the "Medical Waste Classification Directory (2021 Edition)" to continuously improve various standards and policies related to the prevention and control of solid waste pollution.

(3) Accelerate the local legislative process. After the revision of the Solid Waste Law, localities will speed up the formulation of local regulations based on actual conditions. Beijing and six provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) have successively issued or revised relevant local regulations, while 13 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Tianjin have initiated the formulation and revision of relevant local regulations. Seventeen provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) including Shanxi have formulated or revised local regulations that include provisions on the classification of domestic waste.

Next, relevant departments will continue to promote the formulation and revision of regulations and rules such as the management measures for hazardous waste operating permits and environmental pollution liability insurance, expedite the revision of pollution control standards for landfill sites and hazardous waste storage, accelerate the introduction of various standards for the resource utilization of solid waste, and refine the relevant requirements of the Solid Waste Law. At the same time, they will actively cooperate with the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate to amend the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution," further strengthening the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice.

3. On strictly implementing legal responsibilities and strengthening supervision and law enforcement.

(1) Effectively fulfill the statutory responsibilities of the government and relevant departments. First, strengthen the target responsibility system and assessment and evaluation system. Governments at all levels and relevant departments will formulate construction plans for important reform tasks such as domestic waste classification, strengthening hazardous waste supervision, and improving disposal capacity, breaking down tasks and solidifying responsibilities. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will conduct assessments of urban domestic waste classification work, promoting the establishment and improvement of work responsibility systems in provincial and above-level cities. Second, strengthen inter-departmental coordination. In 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Emergency Management jointly conducted special inspections in four provinces (autonomous regions) to explore the establishment of a safety and environmental protection supervision linkage mechanism. The Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly promote the improvement of the long-term mechanism for ship and port pollution prevention in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The Fujian Provincial Emergency Management Department and the Ecology and Environment Department have established a linkage work mechanism for hazardous waste supervision. Third, enhance the level of information management and sharing. In 2021, the national solid waste management information system completed the filing of hazardous waste management plans for nearly 600,000 units and the online operation of over 5 million transfer forms. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has established a free public service platform for hazardous waste identification information nationwide. Regions such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu are promoting the sharing of information between hazardous waste transfer forms and electronic waybills for the transportation of hazardous goods, exploring the use of a "QR code" to manage hazardous waste thoroughly.

(2) Promote the implementation of corporate main responsibilities. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Notice on Carrying Out Industrial Solid Waste Discharge Permit Management Work," incorporating industrial solid waste into the "one certificate" management of discharge permits. The National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued and implemented the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Clean Production Promotion," selecting 100 enterprises in industries such as steel, coking, building materials, non-ferrous metals, and petrochemical to implement clean production transformation projects. The National Development and Reform Commission, in conjunction with relevant departments, issued the "Notice on Encouraging Home Appliance Manufacturing Enterprises to Carry Out Recycling Target Responsibility Actions," further improving the producer responsibility extension system. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and other departments, fully promotes the purchase of environmental pollution liability insurance by hazardous waste operating units in the construction of "waste-free cities."

(3) Accelerate the establishment of regional joint prevention and control mechanisms. 23 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have established 12 cross-regional joint prevention and control or joint law enforcement mechanisms related to hazardous waste, promoting pilot projects for the cross-provincial transfer of hazardous waste "white lists," co-construction and sharing of disposal facilities, and joint regulatory law enforcement, further strengthening joint supervision of hazardous waste in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing area.

(4) Increase the intensity of supervision and law enforcement. First, severely crack down on illegal crimes. Since 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security have carried out special actions to combat environmental crimes related to hazardous waste for two consecutive years, investigating a total of 11,132 cases of hazardous waste environmental violations, imposing fines of 886 million yuan, and transferring 1,890 cases to public security organs. Since the implementation of the new solid waste law, courts at all levels have adjudicated solid waste pollution cases involving hazardous waste, with compensation amounts totaling approximately 5.37 billion yuan. National procuratorial organs have deeply promoted a three-year special supervision campaign titled "Public Interest Litigation to Protect a Beautiful Life," handling over 24,000 public interest litigation cases related to solid waste pollution. Second, continue to carry out special rectifications. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has continued to carry out a three-year national special rectification action for hazardous waste (2020-2022). By the end of 2021, all of the more than 25,000 hazardous waste environmental risk issues identified in the preliminary investigation had been rectified. Continuous rectification of the domestic waste incineration power generation industry has achieved an average daily compliance rate of over 99% for automatic monitoring, and the number of environmental complaints and reports has decreased by 5% year-on-year. In 2021, the "Clear Waste Action" was carried out in the Yellow River Basin, clearing 8.826 million tons of various solid waste.

Next, relevant departments will continue to strengthen the target responsibility system and assessment and evaluation system for solid waste pollution prevention and control work, regularly assess the effectiveness of domestic waste classification work, upgrade and improve the regulatory information system, promote the realization of full-process monitoring and information traceability; continuously incorporate prominent issues in solid waste pollution prevention and control into the central ecological and environmental protection inspections, guiding and promoting localities to continuously increase the intensity of supervision and law enforcement, and seriously investigate and deal with various illegal activities.

4. On adhering to a problem-oriented approach to promote the resolution of prominent issues in solid waste pollution prevention and control.

(1) Strictly implement domestic waste pollution prevention and control. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other departments continue to improve the level of harmless treatment and recycling of domestic waste. In 2021, the harmless treatment volume of domestic waste in 297 cities at or above the prefecture level reached 514,000 tons per day, basically achieving harmless treatment, of which incineration treatment capacity accounted for 75.2% of the total treatment capacity; the recycling rate and resource utilization rate of domestic waste have further increased. The proportion of natural villages that collect and treat rural domestic waste has reached over 90%. The Ministry of Transport, the Railway Bureau, and the Civil Aviation Administration urge shipping, railway, and civil aviation transportation enterprises to implement normalized epidemic prevention measures for COVID-19, paying attention to the collection and disposal of domestic waste.

(2) Continuously improve the environmental risk prevention and control level of hazardous waste. The General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Ecological Protection Compensation System," exploring a compensation mechanism for the cross-regional transfer and disposal of hazardous waste. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment closely monitors the disposal of medical waste in key areas, and the overall disposal of medical waste nationwide has been stable and orderly under the COVID-19 pandemic. Seriously implement the relevant tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan" outline, promoting the construction of national and six regional hazardous waste risk prevention and control technology centers and 20 regional special centralized disposal centers. Establish a mechanism for assessing the matching of hazardous waste generation and disposal capacity and facility operation status, and currently, the disposal capacity within each province generally matches the waste generation situation.

(3) Gradually reduce the stock of solid waste. Relevant parties actively promote the prevention and control of tailings pollution, allocating 290 million yuan in special funds to support the comprehensive management of 84 tailings ponds in the upper reaches of the Jialing River in three provinces, and promoting the nine provinces (autonomous regions) in the Yellow River basin to formulate comprehensive management plans for tailings ponds according to the "one pond, one policy" requirement. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is deeply advancing the "look back" on the management of tailings ponds in the Yangtze River Economic Belt to consolidate and enhance management effectiveness. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development summarizes and exchanges experiences and practices from 35 pilot cities and other regions, deploying further efforts to improve the management and resource utilization of construction waste; Shandong has built and operated 71 construction waste resource utilization treatment sites, with a resource utilization rate of over 60%. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and other departments have issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Agricultural Green Development" and the "Action Plan for the Battle Against Agricultural and Rural Pollution (2021-2025)", strengthening the recycling and utilization of agricultural solid waste, with the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock and poultry manure reaching over 76%, the comprehensive utilization rate of straw at 87.6%, and the recovery rate of agricultural film stabilizing at over 80%.

(4) Effectively promote the pollution control of solid waste in new business formats. Relevant departments earnestly implement the "Opinions on Accelerating the Green Transformation of Express Packaging", and have initially established a legal, standard, and policy system related to express packaging that aligns with green concepts. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and other departments issued the "Notice on Organizing the Pilot Application of Recyclable Express Packaging on a Large Scale", while the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation revised the mandatory national standards to limit excessive packaging of goods, improving the system for limiting excessive packaging. The Postal Administration implements the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Green Development of the Postal Industry", carrying out special governance on excessive packaging and random packaging of mail and express delivery. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promotes the recycling and utilization of automotive power batteries. By the end of 2021, more than 10,000 power battery recycling service points have been established across provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). A national platform for the traceability management of power battery operation has been built, and a monitoring mechanism for the flow throughout the entire lifecycle has been established.

Next, relevant departments will continue to adhere to a problem-oriented approach, coordinate the construction of urban and rural household waste collection and disposal facilities, accelerate the filling of gaps in the treatment facilities for kitchen waste, hazardous waste, sludge, construction waste, etc., promote the integration of urban sanitation systems and recycling resource systems, carry out the closure and management of landfills that have reached capacity, and enhance the operational management level of existing landfill facilities; strengthen the governance of excessive packaging of goods. At the same time, great importance will be attached to the prevention and control of solid waste pollution in ecologically fragile areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and research and explore comprehensive utilization technology routes for wind turbine blades, photovoltaic solar components, and others.

V. Strengthening Guarantee Measures and Establishing a Long-term Mechanism for Multi-party Co-governance

(1) Implementing a charging system. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Measurement and Charging of Non-residential Kitchen Waste Treatment", further improving the charging system and standards. The National Development and Reform Commission formulated the "List of Government Pricing for Business Service Charges", adjusted business service charges, and publicly released the charging situation for household waste, hazardous waste, and others.

(2) Increasing financial investment and support for fiscal and tax policies. The Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, and other departments issued the "Announcement on Improving the Value-added Tax Policy for Resource Comprehensive Utilization", the "Directory of Corporate Income Tax Preferences for Environmental Protection, Energy Conservation, and Water Conservation Projects (2021 Edition)", and the "Directory of Corporate Income Tax Preferences for Resource Comprehensive Utilization (2021 Edition)", further improving the tax incentives for resource comprehensive utilization. Issued the "Management Measures for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Funds" and the "Guidelines for the Entry of Central Ecological and Environmental Fund Project Reserve Library (2021)", supporting the construction of "waste-free cities" and encouraging localities to strengthen project reserves. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment guides relevant utilization and disposal enterprises to rationally layout and develop healthily by promoting local planning and timely release of solid waste-related information.

(3) Strengthening technological innovation and achievement transformation. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other departments released the "National Advanced Pollution Prevention and Control Technology Catalog (Solid Waste and Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Field)" and the "National Industrial Resource Comprehensive Utilization Advanced Applicable Process Technology and Equipment Catalog (2021 Edition)", promoting advanced technology innovation and industrial application. The Ministry of Science and Technology implements the national key R&D plan "Solid Waste Resource Utilization" key special project. So far, a series of technological breakthroughs have been achieved in the comprehensive utilization of bulk industrial solid waste, forming integrated demonstrations in key areas.

Next, relevant departments will continue to strengthen legal implementation guarantees, further enhance the reserve of ecological and environmental fund projects, accelerate the introduction of guidelines for the entry of green finance ecological and environmental protection project libraries; establish and improve the environmental management market system for solid waste, fully utilize the market allocation role of social capital, and promote the resource utilization of solid waste; advance the organization and implementation of key special projects for "solid waste resource utilization" and "key technologies and equipment for circular economy", and continue to increase research and application efforts for advanced technologies.

VI. Accelerating the Formation of a Pattern of Joint Governance and Joint Protection by the Whole Society

(1) Strengthening the interpretation of laws and publicity training. Since 2021, about 50,000 management personnel from government departments at all levels and relevant enterprise personnel have received online training on solid waste laws, creating a good atmosphere in society that respects, learns, abides by, and uses the law. In 2021, 297 cities at the prefecture level and above carried out 194,000 theme publicity activities on household waste classification, and conducted 460,000 campus knowledge popularization and interactive practice activities. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Postal Administration continue to hold publicity activities on "waste-free cities" construction and green express delivery.

(2) Lawfully carrying out information disclosure work. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has gradually established a proactive information disclosure mechanism in the field of solid waste by incorporating solid waste pollution prevention and control into the annual report on ecological environment statistics in China. Issued the management measures and format guidelines for the legal disclosure of enterprise environmental information, promoting enterprises to disclose environmental information in accordance with the law. By the end of 2021, there were 489 household waste treatment facilities, 397 hazardous waste and waste electrical and electronic product treatment facilities, and more than 1,200 urban sewage treatment facilities and environmental monitoring facilities open to the public nationwide, with a total of over 155 million visits received online and offline.

Next, relevant departments will regularly carry out publicity and interpretation of solid waste laws to all sectors of society, increase professional training for management departments and enterprises at all levels, guide localities to lawfully carry out information disclosure work, continue to open environmental protection facilities, and further stimulate the public's awareness of environmental protection responsibilities.

We will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply implement Xi Jinping's thoughts on ecological civilization and the rule of law, follow the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and under the supervision and support of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee, continue to promote the implementation of the solid waste law, lawfully promote the resolution of prominent environmental pollution problems caused by solid waste, and further meet the people's growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment, welcoming the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China with practical actions.