Trade and Circular Economy Workshop - Session 3 - Keli Yu

1. Introduction on international waste trade
BY eli YU
Secretary General of China National Resources Recycling Association
Hello, everyone, my name is Keli Yu and I am working as the Secretary Generalof
China National Resources Recycling Association, which is the biggest industrial
association of China recycling industry.
Thanks for the invitation by OECD, and I planned to attend this important forum, but
unfortunately, the travel had to be cancelled due to the spreading coronavirus
disease. I am sorry for that and I have to share with you my opinions by recording.
Today, I am going to share with you the following points.
Issues aboutthe originofChineserecyclingindustryandimportingof
scraps;
The waste ban published in 2017 shockedthe global recycling industry, and the
question mark was on everyone’s facewhen I attended some international
forum or conferences in last twoyears.
It was not a surprise for us, but to answer the question, we have to get backto
the origin.
Recyclingindustry is not new in China. But starting from1990s, while China
gradually became the world factory,products were sent to developed countries
from China, but it was not good fora empty ship to go back. Then it was found
that scraps or waste was a good option to ship back, because the dealers would
be able to get double paid by doing this, first treatment cost by exporting
countries, and secondly, useful resources can be recycledfrom the scraps, and
the international trade on scraps or waste became more and more popular
because of the development of manufacturing industry in China and the urgent
need of raw materials. Itwas said that nearly up to 70% of scraps/waste was
recycledin China whichprovided important support forthe economic
development.
TherationaleofintroducingtheNational SwordPolicy;
However,the import of scraps or waste not only bring in the materials, but also
the environmental cost in recycling sector, especially forthe informal recycling
sector, many home workshopsstarted to carry out the recycling business

2. without proper technique, and caused severe environmental pollution and
social problems.
These years, Chinese government are paying great attention to the environment
and many industries has to shift and upgrade to have lower effectto
environment. The recyclingindustry has to change too.
Before the introduction of waste ban, Chinese government had initiated some
restriction measure, forexample, more and more standards were introduced
and the well known“Demeter” “Green fence” and “National sword ”operation
were conducted by China Customs and Ministry of Environment aimed at
combating illegal trade in waste and put on more regulating measures on the
recyclingindustry.
·Howthe restrictions oncertainwaste imports,havehelpeddeveloping
yournational recyclingsector(shiftingfrominformalto formal sectors),
and finally
The waste ban does not mean China do not need raw materials, China is still
promoting the development of circular economy.For example, China published
the <EPR PromotionScheme> in 2017, In this scheme, electronics,vehicles, lead
acid batteries and packages were considered to be main categories to promote
EPRand recycling.It was mentioned that, the recyclingrate of key categories
will reach 40% in 2020 and 50% in 2025, the use of secondary or recycled
materials should reach 20% in 2025.
·Additional measuresthatareplannedto scaleup national effortsfor
recycling(includingthedevelopmentofnational standardsforsecondary
raw materials).
China also tried to promote the development of domestic collectionsystem too.
China is promoting the household waste sorting plan, by doing this, it is
expected that more and more formalrecycling companies willhave more
domestic supply and the environment can be better protected too.
To concludeand suggest,
(1) It is very important to promote circulareconomy by encouraging legal and
good trade of qualified scraps or materials orginated from scraps.
(2) The challenge is to set up an effectiveintermational waste/scraps
import/export controland monitoring system both forthe exporting countries
and the importing countries.

3. (3) The locallizedwaste scraps recycling centre should be encouraged and new
business cooperation/international trade mode deserve more discussion.
(4) I suggest OECDto conduct in-depth research in cooperation withindustrial
organizations both from exporting countries and importing countries.
Thanks very much and wish the forum a great success.