SHANGHAI, Sept. 28 (SMM) –Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a State Council executive meeting on September 21st, making plans for the establishment of a recycling system for waste products. Wen pointed out during the meeting that China's recycling system for waste products was not perfect, not only affecting the use of wastes, but also easily creating environmental pollutions, and that building an advanced and complete recycling, transportation, processing and use of waste products recycling system has become essential.

China's waste products markets have been a mess, for example, scrap copper markets are seen to make transactions without paying VAT, as scrap copper prices with VAT are usually higher than refined copper prices. Besides, incidents of copper wires and cables stolen frequently occur when copper prices are high. The environmental authorities closed a copper smelter in Beishi Town, Guangning County, Guangdong Province illegally using wire scrap and other scrap raw materials. The State Council executive meeting asked to build the waste products recycling system from the perspectives of recycling, technology, supervision and law, and will promote the sound development of China's secondary copper industry.   
    
Related authorities have stepped up efforts to inspect on solid wastes in all regions since the implementation of Administrative Measures on Solid Waste Import on August 1st, showing China Central Government's strong resolution on wastes regulation and supervision. There was news on September 26th that Liqiao Town, which is in Shunyi District, Beijing, coordinated the Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and other enforcement departments to conduct liquidation on its Xiaozhonghe Waste Products Stations. The establishment of a complete waste products recycling system is also under way, as the 300-kt secondary copper smelting project in Wuzhou of Guangxi Nonferrous Recycle Metals Co., Ltd. has recently obtained the Tax Exemption Certification on Import Equipments issued by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).  

China is short of copper resources, and needs to import large amounts of copper concentrate and refined copper every year. At present, China has fewer scale-size scrap copper smelters. Secondary copper output in the US accounts for about 60% of the total copper output, and 45% in Japan, and 8% in Germany. Hence, there is great potential in China's future secondary copper markets. With the reform and opening up in more than 30 years, the development and use of scrap copper resources will enter into a golden period, and the regulations on waste products market will enhance the development of secondary copper industry.