The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has made it clear! We will promote the convenience of hazardous waste collection, the speed of transfer, and the informatization of supervision.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently released the "Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening Environmental Governance of Hazardous Wastes and Strictly Controlling Environmental Risks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), promoting the convenience of hazardous waste collection, the speed of transfer, and the informatization of supervision. Through measures such as deepening the pilot program for hazardous waste collection by small and medium-sized enterprises and encouraging regional cooperation to simplify the approval process, the efficiency of hazardous waste treatment is improved. At the same time, it proposes to strengthen the informatization of environmental management of hazardous waste and clearly sets the goal of achieving full-process informatization supervision for key regulatory units of hazardous waste across the country by 2026.

Promoting the convenience of hazardous waste collection and the speed of transfer

The Opinions propose that further efforts should be made to enhance the efficiency of standardized collection and transfer of hazardous waste. 

On one hand, efforts should be made to facilitate the collection of hazardous waste, deepen the pilot program for hazardous waste collection by small and medium-sized enterprises, and implement the "grid-based" collection model. The types of waste to be collected, the service targets, and the service areas of the pilot units should be clearly defined, promoting the collection of all hazardous waste by small and medium-sized enterprises; on the other hand, hazardous waste transfer should follow the principle of proximity, and large-scale and long-distance transfer and disposal of hazardous waste should not be encouraged. 

After investigation, in November 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a document to promote the launch of a pilot program for optimizing the management of cross-provincial transfer of spent lead-acid batteries nationwide. This Opinions proposes to deepen the cross-provincial transfer of spent lead-acid batteries in accordance with the pilot program for intra-provincial transfer management, and on this basis, study the expansion of the types of hazardous waste included in the pilot program. 

At the same time, provinces that encourage regional cooperation should simplify the approval procedures for the transfer of hazardous waste between regions, improving the efficiency of hazardous waste transfer. Efforts should be made to improve and perfect the hazardous waste centralized disposal system with "overall matching of capacity within the province, coordinated cooperation between provinces, and national coordination for special categories", ensuring the basic coverage of hazardous waste centralized disposal capacity. For key regions such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and Sichuan-Chongqing, the Opinions propose to promote the coordinated planning, joint construction, and sharing of hazardous waste centralized disposal facilities. 

It is worth noting that for the collection and disposal of medical waste, the Opinions propose to promote the establishment of a medical waste collection and disposal system that ensures the availability of centralized disposal capacity at the municipal level, combines centralized disposal in remote areas with on-site disposal, and dynamically improves the "all-purpose" disposal capacity as a backup. 

"Remote areas should establish a long-term mechanism for medical waste collection and transportation that suits local conditions. They can rely on larger medical institutions to set up centralized collection and transportation points for medical waste, and promote the 'small box into large box' collection model." The Opinions state. 

It is understood that the "small box into large box" collection and transportation model refers to designating a hospital or community health center as a medical waste transfer station, collecting medical waste from grassroots medical institutions in the area within the designated time and handing it over to a medical waste disposal company for transportation and disposal. 

Previously, in places such as Foshan City in Guangdong Province, Cixi City in Zhejiang Province, and Xingren City in Guizhou Province, relying on this model, problems related to the temporary storage and clearance of medical waste in remote areas were effectively solved, providing strong support for preventing environmental pollution by medical waste. 

This Opinions mentions that for remote areas without the conditions for centralized collection and disposal, medical institutions can build facilities that meet requirements to handle hazardous waste on their own. At the same time, mobile treatment and disposal facilities or equipment can be adopted to provide on-site disposal services for remote areas. 

Gradually reducing the amount of landfill disposal and promoting source reduction and resource utilization

Compared with the traditional landfill method that poses environmental risks, source reduction and resource utilization are more ideal ways of hazardous waste disposal. 

The Opinions propose that strict control should be exercised over hazardous waste landfill disposal, and the amount of landfill disposal should be gradually reduced. "Strengthen environmental supervision of hazardous waste landfill disposal, gradually restricting the direct landfill of hazardous waste that can be reduced through utilization, incineration, etc.各地 should combine their actual conditions to promote the gradual reduction of the landfill volume of fly ash from domestic waste incineration， and encourage qualified regions to achieve zero landfill of fly ash from domestic waste incineration. In addition， promote smart landfill technology to realize the traceability and real-time monitoring and early warning of volatile organic pollutants throughout the process of hazardous waste landfill disposal."

While promoting a steady decline in the proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal， promoting the source reduction and resource utilization of hazardous waste is a key step.

The "Opinions" point out that it is necessary to optimize the source treatment and systematic treatment of wastewater and waste gas， reduce the generation of difficult-to-treat waste salt that belongs to hazardous waste， standardize the packaging of hazardous waste， and strengthen the collection and treatment of volatile organic pollutants during the storage， utilization and disposal processes of hazardous waste. At the same time， encourage the harmless pre-treatment of low-value hazardous waste such as domestic waste incineration fly ash and waste salt， and prevent long-term and large-scale storage.

At the same time， it is necessary to improve the level of hazardous waste utilization and disposal， promote the upgrading of hazardous waste utilization and disposal facilities， improve the operation management level of existing facilities， and build new single centralized hazardous waste incineration disposal facilities with a disposal capacity of more than 30，000 tons per year.

As a market economy entity， enterprises play an indispensable role in promoting the resource utilization and recycling of hazardous waste.

Expert Zhou Di from the National Science and Technology Expert Database of the Ministry of Science and Technology told reporters that by increasing investment in research and development of clean production processes， efficient sorting technologies， and deep processing of recycled materials， enterprises can develop more efficient and environmentally friendly hazardous waste treatment technologies. For example， chemical enterprises develop solvent regeneration and purification technologies， and electronic enterprises tackle the extraction process of rare and precious metals from waste circuit boards. Through technological breakthroughs， they can improve the resource conversion rate and product value-added. Through market operations， enterprises can also convert hazardous waste into valuable resources or products， achieving a win-win situation of economic benefits and environmental benefits. At the same time， competition among enterprises can also promote technological progress and industrial upgrading in the entire industry.

To strengthen hazardous waste environmental governance， the "Opinions" focus on leveraging market forces and propose to encourage the construction and professional operation of hazardous waste utilization and disposal groups， and build advanced and comprehensive hazardous waste utilization and disposal facilities that integrate physical treatment， incineration， landfill disposal， and recycling. Relying on qualified enterprises with regional special hazardous waste centralized disposal centers， build a batch of international first-class hazardous waste utilization and disposal enterprises， carry out technological research and development and demonstration applications of hazardous waste utilization and disposal. Encourage the transfer of hazardous waste to high-level enterprises for utilization and disposal.

Key regulatory units will achieve full coverage of process-level informationized supervision next year.

"Accelerate the construction and application of the national hazardous waste full-process environmental management information system to realize online declaration of hazardous waste generation， online filing of management plans， online operation of transfer forms， online reporting of utilization and disposal situations， and real-time dynamic information-based traceability of the entire process."

"Encourage qualified regions to carry out online transactions and third-party payment for hazardous waste collection， transportation， utilization， and disposal， and explore the integration of 'three flows' of waste flow， capital flow， and information flow to strengthen the tracking and control of the flow direction of hazardous waste."

"Strengthen real-time dynamic monitoring. Utilize new technologies such as the Internet of Things and blockchain to closely monitor the three links of generation， transfer， and utilization and disposal， and use three codes such as unified electronic labels， QR codes for transfer forms， and electronic operating licenses for hazardous waste."

……

It is easy to notice from the "Opinions" that the signal of "strengthening the information-based supervision of hazardous waste" has become more clear.

It is worth noting that the "Opinions" emphasize promoting the "five-every" standardized construction of hazardous waste generating units - implementing the "five-every" principle of generating, packaging, weighing, coding, and storage immediately, strengthening the full-process QR code tracking and information-based management of hazardous waste from generation to disposal. By 2025, relevant provinces in the Yangtze River Delta region and qualified provinces will achieve this first. The "five-every" standardized construction can force enterprises to upgrade their IoT facilities at the waste generation nodes. Instant coding and storage along with QR code tracking give each bag of hazardous waste a "digital ID", which helps solve the problems of lagging ledgers and false transfer forms in the past. The pilot experiment in the Yangtze River Delta region can provide a portable digital supervision solution for the whole country. Zhou Di said.

Promoting the collaborative governance of hazardous waste data is another manifestation of the "Opinions" in strengthening information-based supervision.

Specifically, it is necessary to promote the sharing of business data such as environmental management of hazardous waste, environmental impact assessment approval, pollutant discharge permit, ecological environment statistics, law enforcement inspections, and public complaints, establish a mechanism for discovering illegal clues of hazardous waste using big data means, and enhance the ability to accurately discover illegal clues of hazardous waste. According to the "Opinions", by 2026, all key-regulated units of hazardous waste environment in the country will achieve full coverage of process-based information-based supervision; by 2027, all hazardous waste-related units in the country will basically achieve full coverage of process-based information-based supervision, with the proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal decreasing steadily, and the guarantee capacity and environmental risk prevention level of hazardous waste utilization and disposal further improved; by 2030, the hazardous waste process-based information-based supervision system will be further improved, with the proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal in the country controlled within 10%, and the environmental risks of hazardous waste effectively controlled. 

*Content excerpted from the Environmental Protection APP