Chinese authorities have arrested 259 people for smuggling more than 300,000 tonnes of waste into the country this year, the environment ministry said on Monday.
China told the World Trade Organisation in July that it would stop accepting imports of 24 types of foreign waste, including paper and textiles, by the end of this year, and that it would eventually ban shipments of all waste products readily available from domestic sources.
The crackdown and ban on foreign rubbish, which reached as much as 47 million tonnes in 2015, has been a key element of China’s ongoing “war on pollution”. It is also part of the country’s efforts to move up the supply chain and ease its reliance on low-grade industries.
