China’s Recycling Economy … Defined! Sort of.

China Daily is reporting that China’s draft “circular economy” law has been submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (danwei reports that the Beijing News is also carrying it). As a translation, “circular economy” is not only awkward, it is also regularly substituted by “Recycling Economy” and “Sustainable Economy.” For the purpose of this post, I’ll use “Recycling Economy,” while noting that translation really depends upon context.

In either case, for the last three years I’ve been covering the slow development of this important legislation as it pertains to China’s recycling industries (thus, “Recycling Economy”). And over the course of those three years it became increasingly clear that the legislation would cover much more than recycling and – if the China Daily story is to be taken seriously – it is being set-up as a catch-all solution to of China’s environmental problems.

In late May the China National Resources Recycling Association [CRRA] held its annual conference in Tianjin, and I was fortunate enough to be in attendance when Feng Zhijun, member of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, vice-chairman of that body’s Environment & Resource Protection Committee, and – most important for the purposes of this post – Coordinator of the Circular Economy legislation, presented the conference’s keynote address.

It’s quite rare that a high-ranking national official like Feng will publicly discuss long-delayed and much-debated draft legislation. But that’s precisely what Feng did – in a sense – on that May afternoon, providing the first hints as to the philosophy and means that China will apply to the development of a Chinese Circular Economy. I covered the speech and the conference for Recycling International, a trade journal based in the Netherlands, and the complete article can be found in the current issue. Below is the section relating to Feng Zhijun’s speech. I note – from the outset – that it was one of the most bizarre presentations that I have ever witnessed by a government official in any country. It was also one of the most frank that I’ve ever heard from a Chinese official, and though the colorful language is both distracting and entertaining, it suggests (to me, at least) the absurd scale of China’s environmental crisis as observed from one of Beijing’s pinnacles.

Departing immediately from the dense printed text that had been distributed to delegates, Feng launched into an impromptu set of remarks that covered everything from energy policy, recycling, and extravagant Chinese entertainment spending worth RMB 40 billion last year (roughly, US$5.25 billion). “We cannot sustain this extravagance,” he declared. “It is wasteful.” To illustrate his point, he waved his arm across the vast ballroom and announced that “this hotel and conference center is also extravagant and wasteful.”

Continuing, he pointed out that in the 1960s and 1970s, China suffered mass starvation; today, meanwhile, meals can cost RMB3000. Pausing, he asked, “How can we develop without introspection?” Further introspection was provided on the topic of noise pollution and its impact on bird reproduction. “Don’t underestimate it,” he suggested. “If there is too much noise the male birds cannot attract a mate with their songs.” As a brief aside, he noted that karaoke bars are open until “two or three AM,” thus exerting an equally negative impact on the wooing capacity of male birds.

With that, the rhetorical portion of Feng’s speech concluded and he turned his attention to the serious issues involved in regulating China’s scrap industry. He recounted that, last year, he and a delegation of environmental officials visited scrap processing companies in the nine provinces of the Yellow River region where “they all use waste treatment facilities.” After this announced inspection tour, several environmental officials remained behind, secretly. “And they saw that after we left, the local factories shut down their waste treatment facilities! They released waste water after we left.” From this example, Feng suggested that the autonomy and independence of local government is the main problem in developing a recycling economy for China. “In the past, there has been no link between law enforcement and legislation.” Though he did not give specifics, the recycling economy law will presumably attempt to strengthen that link.

Long-time China watchers have tried to determine what exactly China means and intends by the development of a recycling economy. Feng attempted to give some insight into the matter with an analogy. “I don’t care if a child pees,” he explained. “The question is, how am I going to use a napkin to clean up when the child pees? That is the philosophy.” He offered no further discussion of this example, but instead proceeded to explain that the Recycling Economy law will reflect aspects of recycling laws in Japan and Europe. Then, suddenly, he stopped his remarks and asked that he not be quoted further on the legislation, adding only that he is the coordinator of the law (“and I cannot be challenged”), that the law will be passed this year, and implemented next year.

Without betraying Feng’s request, it is worth noting a final Feng analogy. “How does human society progress?” He asked the audience, before proceeding to answer the question himself. “There is a beautiful lady, men chase her, and one catches her.” Pausing, presumably for effect, he added, “Attraction plays a role. And so the Recycling Economy law will use both stimulation and penalties in its implementation.” Feng had to leave for another engagement immediately following his speech, and was not available for questions from the audience or the media.

[UPDATE 8/28: South China Morning Post files an interesting report [subscriber only] on a “sustainable sanitation” conference being held in Inner Mongolia this week. Two interesting passages relevant to this post:

Yang Jike, of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee, said despite disasters across the country, regional authorities had yet to follow Beijing’s campaign to balance development and conservation. He hit out at affluent coastal provinces such as Jiangsu , Zhejiang and Guangdong, saying they had set a bad example in pursuing industrialisation at the expense of the environment.

 

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Ren Yuling, , a consultant to the State Council, who completed a study of the Yellow River in June … said millions living along major rivers had lost access to fresh water and many had died from disease ….

Polluting firms or waste treatment centres, which were banned in cities, had been built without restrictions in rural areas, resulting in a health crisis, he said. “The relations between polluting enterprises and the environmental authorities are like mice and cats. Environmental officials would rather see more polluters in order to increase income from fines,” he said.

I have been covering pollution in the provinces for several years, but I must admit that – before now – I was unaware that local officials viewed polluting enterprises as a legitimate source of income (in contrast to a potential source of illegitimate income).]