The Chinese Government has said it is still planning to stop imports of foreign solid waste by the end of 2020.
In a report published by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment that is an implementation interim evaluation report on the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Ecological Environmental Protection, it states that China strives “to basically implement by the end of 2020 zero import of solid waste”.
There has been some talk in the recycling industry that some paper grades might be reclassified as a renewable resource by the Chinese Government and this would allow some imports of the very highest quality material to continue. However, this has yet to be confirmed.
The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Ecological Environmental Protection was published in November 2016 and was guided by the “ecological civilisation thoughts” of President Xi Jinping.
