China establishes new centrally administered SOE for resource-recycling

China officially launched a centrally administered state-owned enterprise (SOE) in Tianjin on Friday, specializing in resources recycling and reuse.

The newly established enterprise, Resources Recycling Group Co., Ltd, will undertake the important task of building a national platform on recycling and reusing consumer durables such as scrapped motor vehicles, home appliances and electronic products, and major equipment products such as retired wind power and photovoltaic modules.

"China Resources Recycling Group will recycle waste steel, waste power batteries, waste plastics, and waste non-ferrous metals, which is conducive to improving the self-sufficiency of energy and minerals. Taking the utilization of plastic recycling as an example, it is estimated that about 43 million tons of waste plastics were incinerated or buried in China in 2023. If half of this amount can be recycled chemically, it is equivalent to developing an oil field with a capacity of more than 60 million tons, which is of great significance for ensuring national energy and mineral security," said Sinopec President Ma Yongsheng.

According to a guideline issued by the State Council, China will implement a comprehensive set of policies to establish an extensive waste recycling system encompassing all sectors and stages by 2025.

The resource recycling industry is projected to achieve an annual output value of five trillion yuan (about 704 billion U.S. dollars), with the recycling of municipal solid waste expected to reach four billion tons and the recycling of major renewable resources anticipated to reach 450 million tons. Additionally, the proportion of utilized household waste is expected to increase to about 60 percent.

By 2030, the recycling of municipal solid waste is predicted to reach 4.5 billion tons, while the recycling of key renewable resources is projected to reach 510 million tons, and the proportion of domestic household waste utilization is expected to rise to 65 percent.

Liu Yu, chairman of China Resources Recycling Group Co., Ltd, said that the company will be built into a comprehensive solution provider covering multiple key categories of recycled resources, integrating functions such as warehousing, processing, distribution, trade-in and standard setting.

"Implementing resource recycling is a key component and an important measure for promoting large-scale equipment renewal and the trade-in of consumer goods. These waste products and equipment contain valuable recyclable materials, including steel, nonferrous metals, precious metals, plastics, rubber, and other resources. Effective recycling of these materials is akin to opening a 'second mine', which can reduce the demand for primary resources and lessen the pressure of mineral resource exploitation on the natural environment. At the same time, it also creates a broad market space for the development of the renewable resources recycling industry," said Liu.

The registered capital of the newly founded enterprise is 10 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars), with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council representing the State Council in fulfilling the responsibilities of the investor.

In terms of the equity structure, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited, China Petrochemical Corporation, and China Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd. each hold 20 percent, while Aluminum Corporation of China and China Minmetals Corporation each hold 10 percent.

China establishes new centrally administered SOE for resource-recycling

China has issued a document of guidelines on promoting the construction of new-type urban infrastructure.

The guidelines, made public on Thursday, was jointly approved by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, and highlights two major goals.

By 2027, significant progress should have been made in the construction of new-type urban infrastructure, providing ever increasing support for the development of resilient cities, while a number of experience and practices that can be copied and expanded should have been established.

By 2030, the construction of new-type urban infrastructure should have achieved remarkable results, to help push forward the building of a group of high-level resilient cities, improve urban safety and resilience, and ensure safer, more orderly, smarter and more efficient urban operations.

To achieve these aims, major tasks must be fulfilled in 11 aspects, including implementing the building and upgrading of intelligent municipal infrastructure, promoting the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles, and developing smart residential quarters, according to the guidelines.

In addition, there are other important tasks such as raising the intelligence level of housing and building management, carrying out digital home construction, improving city information modeling platforms, and maintaining cyber and data security.

"Currently, various types of urban disasters and safety accidents are prone to occur frequently. Proposing comprehensive advancement in building resilient cities is an important measure to address the current urban disaster risks. Meanwhile, it is also an important aspect of advancing the modernization of urban governance in our country, with significant implications for implementing the holistic approach to national security and promoting the secure development of cities," said Wang Kai, president of the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

Experts said that cities, which serve as the main engine of China's economic and social development and play a primary role in expanding domestic demand, provide the broadest application scenarios and innovation space for new-generation information technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and the Industrial Internet.

"The construction of new-type urban infrastructure essentially aims to construct a new-type urban infrastructure system based on digitization, networking, and intelligence. We should firmly grasp the development trends of digitization, networking, and intelligence to enhance the level of intelligence of the entire urban infrastructure, improve our monitoring capabilities, and enhance our risk prevention and control capabilities," said Liang Feng, vice chairman of the Smart City Professional Committee of the Science and Technology Committee under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

China to step up construction of new-type urban infrastructure