China's First Circular Economy Strategic Plan Sets 15% Resource Productivity Gain and RMB 1.8 Trillion Recycling Industry Goal

On January 23, 2013, the State Council issued the Notice on the Circular Economy Development Strategy and Near-Term Action Plan, publishing in full the Circular Economy Development Strategy and Near-Term Action Plan (the "Strategy and Action Plan"). The document is China's first strategic plan dedicated to circular economy development.

According to the Strategy and Action Plan, developing the circular economy is a major strategic decision and a significant step in advancing ecological civilization; it is likewise the unavoidable choice for accelerating the transformation of the economic development pattern, building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society, and achieving sustainable development. The document reviews in a comprehensive way what China accomplished in the circular economy during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, analyzes in depth the situation that lies ahead, and sets out the overall requirements, main tasks and safeguard measures for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period and beyond.

The Strategy and Action Plan states that work should be guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the "Three Represents" and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and that the basic national policies of conserving resources and protecting the environment must be implemented. With the transformation of the economic development pattern at the core and higher resource output as the objective, it adopts the principle of "reduction, reuse and recycling, with reduction given priority." Building a circular industrial system, industrializing resource recycling and promoting green consumption are the focus areas, supported by sound incentive and restraint mechanisms, so that a resource recycling system covering the whole society takes shape quickly, a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society is built, and ecological civilization reaches a higher level.

The medium- and long-term goals set out in the Strategy and Action Plan are: circular production methods widely adopted, green consumption patterns broadly popularized, a society-wide resource recycling system initially established, resource output substantially raised, and the capacity for sustainable development markedly strengthened. The near-term goal (by the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period) is a 15% increase in the output rate of major resources and a total output value of 1.8 trillion yuan for the resource recycling industry.

The Strategy and Action Plan identifies the key tasks for circular economy development: (1) Build a circular industrial system. Circular production methods should be applied across the industrial sector, cleaner production and source reduction promoted, and cascade energy use, water recycling, waste exchange and economical, intensive land use achieved. (2) Build a circular agricultural system. In agriculture, efforts should drive economical resource use, cleaner production processes, circular industry linkages and resource-based waste treatment, forming a circular agricultural production model in which farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery coexist, while improving the rural ecological environment and raising the overall benefits of agriculture.

(3) Build a circular service industry system and give full play to the role of the service sector in guiding green, low-carbon and circular consumption concepts and in transforming consumption patterns. (4) Advance the circular economy at the social level by improving recycling systems, industrializing renewable resource utilization, developing remanufacturing, promoting the resource-based use of kitchen waste, carrying out green building and green transportation initiatives, encouraging green consumption and pursuing a grand circular strategy to accelerate the building of a circular society. (5) Roll out the "ten, hundred, thousand" circular economy demonstration initiative, implement relevant projects, create 100 demonstration cities (counties), and cultivate 1,000 demonstration enterprises and parks.

The Strategy and Action Plan requires all regions and departments to recognize, from a strategic and holistic perspective, the great significance of accelerating circular economy development, to fulfill their responsibilities, improve working mechanisms, strengthen coordination and cooperation, intensify their efforts further, and adopt effective measures to ensure that all targets and tasks are completed and that the level of ecological civilization is raised across the board.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361926.html