This year China’s customs confiscated 110,000 tons of smuggled waste

Beijing. April 4. Silkroadnews - China’s customs authority has already seized 110,000 tonnes of smuggled solid waste this year and smashed 25 smuggling rings, South China Morning Post reports.
China told the World Trade Organisation last year that it would stop accepting imports on 24 types of foreign waste, including paper and textiles, by the end of 2017 and that it would eventually ban shipments of all waste products readily available from domestic sources, the publication reads.
The ban on import of garbage, which in 2015 reached 47 million tons, is part of China’s “war on pollution” and designed to help the country to strengthen its economy. Enforcing the ban is one of the priorities of the government this year.
Still garbage remains a lucrative business. At the time of the ban the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries said the US exports of recyclable materials to China in 2016 amounted to $5.6 billion.
According to the General Administration of Customs, this year an attempt was made to import 64,700 tons of waste slag. As of April 2 this year, 52 people have been arrested.
259 people were arrested in China for smuggling foreign wastes in 2017.
Last week the recently established Ecology and Environment Ministry stated it would intensify the fight against foreign wastes.