Remarkable achievements have been made in the treatment of key areas of solid waste in the new era for ten years

    Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China's solid waste environmental governance capacity and level has been significantly improved, the environmental risks of the whole process of hazardous waste have been effectively controlled, breakthroughs have been made in a number of reforms and key work, and the prevention and control of solid waste pollution in key areas have been effective.

First, a total ban on the import of "foreign garbage" as a landmark achievement of China's ecological civilization construction was written into the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Resolution on the Great Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party's Centennial Struggle. From 2017 to 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the General Administration of Customs and other departments, continued to reduce the types and quantities of imported solid waste, severely cracked down on illegal and criminal activities involving foreign garbage, improved the laws and regulations on the import of solid waste, and accelerated the construction of a domestic recycling system for waste materials. After four years of efforts, the work of prohibiting foreign garbage from entering the country was fully completed. The reform achieved the goal of zero import of solid waste as scheduled, and the history of developed countries treating China as a "garbage dump" is gone forever. At the same time, the reform has effectively promoted the optimization of the supply structure of bulk raw materials. In 2021, the total amount of renewable resources recovered in China reached 381 million tons, an increase of 100 million tons or 35.7% compared with 2016 before the reform. The reform of completely banning the import of "foreign garbage" has led to the transformation of the international solid waste management pattern and concept, and related measures have become an important driving force to reshape the international solid waste recycling order.

The second is to promote the construction of a resource recycling system to help green and low-carbon development. China regards solid waste source reduction and comprehensive utilization of resources as an important way to strengthen comprehensive management of ecological environment and an important measure to promote green and low-carbon development. The garbage sorting work in cities above prefecture level in China has been fully started, and the average coverage rate of garbage sorting in residential areas will reach 77% in 2021. We will continue to strengthen pollution control in agriculture and rural areas, and the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock manure and straw will reach 76% and 87.6% respectively, and the recovery rate of agricultural film will reach 80%. We will implement the extended producer responsibility system, and through the fund subsidy policy, about 800 million discarded electrical and electronic products will be guided into regular enterprises for standardized treatment in the past 10 years. The circular economy maintained a good development trend. In 2021, the output rate of China's main resources was 58% higher than that of 10 years ago. The output value of the resource recycling industry exceeded 3 trillion yuan, which led to more than 30 million jobs and more than 100,000 enterprises. Solid waste treatment and recycling has become the largest and fastest growing segment of eco-environmental protection industry.

Third, the construction of a "waste-free city" has moved forward from a local pilot to the whole country and made positive progress. At present, 113 cities and 8 special regions have issued implementation plans. According to incomplete statistics, more than 3,200 solid waste utilization and disposal projects have been arranged nationwide, involving more than 1 trillion yuan. 110 cities and regions have set up leading groups for the construction of "waste-free cities"; About 83% of cities and regions have established special classes for "waste-free cities" and are equipped with full-time staff; About 60% cities and regions have established working mechanisms such as work coordination, information notification, assessment and briefing.

Fourth, environmental risks in key areas such as hazardous waste have been effectively controlled throughout the process. Vigorously implement the reform of strengthening the supervision, utilization and disposal capacity of hazardous wastes, and basically establish an ecological and environmental risk prevention and control system for hazardous wastes with strict prevention at the source, strict management in the process and severe consequences. We organized a three-year campaign of special rectification of hazardous wastes and centralized management of hazardous waste risks such as abandoned hazardous chemicals, and a large number of potential environmental risks of hazardous wastes were effectively eliminated. The investigation and management system of pollution hidden dangers of tailings ponds and the environmental supervision system of classification and classification of tailings ponds were established, and more than 27,000 person-times were dispatched, completing the comprehensive investigation of pollution hidden dangers of tens of thousands of tailings ponds nationwide, effectively preventing environmental risks in flood season. Focus on the management of tailings ponds in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Yellow River Basin and the upper reaches of Jialing River, and continuously improve the operation of tailings pond environmental management facilities and the level of risk prevention and control.