China Announced Environmental Protection Rules for Imported Waste Paper, Importer’s Capacity not Lower than 50,000 MT/

By CnAgri2018-01-11 14:47:48 Print On December 14, 2017, Ministry of Environmental Protection officially promulgated the environmental protection rules on imported waste paper which would be implemented on the date of promulgation, issued on December 15. The official announcement was more softened than that of the draft proposal issued at the end of October, a company’s capacity was reduced from not lower than 300,000 ton/year to not lower than 50,000 ton/year.
On November 15, the Chinese government notified WTO of the new pollutant limits of imported waste as raw materials. According to the latest submitted document, the impurity rate of imported waste plastics and waste paper shall not be higher than 0.5% while the rate was 0.3% in the first draft in August, but the impurity rate doubled the old rate of 1.5%. The new regulations will take effect on March 1, 2018.
 
Although the qualified conditions of the importers have decreased compared with the exposure draft, they added other production and processing equipment condition limits in capacity, pulping ability and paper making. At the same time, the new regulations upgraded the standards on the trash content of imported waste paper. China's waste paper imports will still be significantly reduced next year and the imports are expected to be around 23 million tons, according to BOABC.