CCTV News: According to the WeChat official account of the "Ministry of Ecology and Environment", the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Environmental Governance of Hazardous Wastes and Strictly Preventing and Controlling Environmental Risks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"). A relevant person in charge of the Solid Waste and Chemicals Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment answered reporters' questions on the relevant situation.

Q: What is the background and significance of the publication of the Guiding Opinions?

A: In October 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to strictly prevent and control environmental risks. The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China" proposes to strengthen the supervision and utilization and disposal capabilities of hazardous waste, strengthen the investigation and risk prevention and control of hazardous waste environmental hazards, and implement major projects for the prevention and control of hazardous waste environmental risks. The "Implementation Plan for Strengthening the Reform of Hazardous Waste Supervision and Utilization Disposal Capacity" issued by the General Office of the State Council proposes that by the end of 2025, a hazardous waste supervision system with strict prevention at the source, strict management of the process, and severe punishment of the consequences will be established and improved.

In order to actively implement the decisions and deployment requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, comprehensively and accurately implement the policies of precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and pollution control in accordance with the law, further strengthen the environmental governance of hazardous waste, strictly prevent and control the environmental risks of hazardous waste, maintain ecological environment security, and promote the construction of a beautiful China, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Guiding Opinions".

Q: What are the work goals proposed in the "Guiding Opinions"?

Answer: The "Guiding Opinions" aims to strictly prevent and control the environmental risks of hazardous waste, and take promoting information-based environmental supervision throughout the whole process and strictly controlling the proportion of landfill disposal as a starting point, improve the efficiency of environmental supervision of hazardous waste, optimize the utilization and disposal methods, and maintain the bottom line of the ecological environment safety of hazardous waste.

The "Guiding Opinions" propose that by 2026, the national key regulatory units for hazardous waste environment will achieve full coverage of information supervision throughout the entire process. By 2027, the national hazardous waste-related units will basically achieve full coverage of information supervision throughout the whole process, the proportion of hazardous waste landfill and disposal has steadily decreased, and the utilization and disposal guarantee capacity and environmental risk prevention and control level will be further improved. By 2030, the information-based supervision system for the entire process of hazardous waste will be further improved, the proportion of landfill and disposal of hazardous waste will be controlled within 10%, and the environmental risks of hazardous waste will be effectively prevented and controlled.

Q: What work measures does the "Guiding Opinions" propose?

Answer: The "Guiding Opinions" focus on the prevention and control of environmental risks of hazardous waste and study and propose the following three key work measures.

First, improve the ability to collect and dispose of hazardous wastes. Mainly in response to the unbalanced and insufficient development of hazardous waste utilization and disposal capacity, it is proposed to promote the facilitation of hazardous waste collection and rapid transfer; dynamically improve the guarantee system for centralized disposal of hazardous waste, promote the co-construction and sharing of regional disposal facilities; improve the medical waste collection and disposal system and disposal methods, and optimize the collection and disposal methods in remote areas.

The second is to optimize the use and disposal methods of hazardous waste. Mainly in view of the unreasonable structure of hazardous waste utilization and disposal, we propose to guide the adjustment of hazardous waste utilization and disposal structure to promote the recycling of hazardous waste; improve the construction and operation level of hazardous waste utilization and disposal facilities, and create an international first-class hazardous waste utilization and disposal enterprise; reduce the proportion of hazardous waste landfill and disposal volume.

The third is to improve the environmental management system for hazardous waste. The main reasons are that the standardization, informatization and refinement of environmental management of hazardous waste need to be further improved. It is proposed to implement the main responsibilities of enterprises, investigate and rectify environmental risks and hidden dangers of hazardous waste, and improve the environmental risk prevention and control mechanism; strengthen real-time dynamic monitoring of hazardous waste throughout the entire process and coordinated management of basic data of hazardous waste; promote the hierarchical and classified management of hazardous waste, and deepen institutional reform and innovation.

Q: How to promote the implementation of the "Guiding Opinions"?

Answer: In order to ensure the implementation of the tasks and measures proposed in the "Guiding Opinions", the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will implement them in the following three aspects in the next step. First, strengthen organization and implementation, and require local ecological and environmental departments at all levels to improve organizational mechanisms, guide and supervise relevant enterprises to strictly implement the hazardous waste environmental management system, strengthen the environmental governance of hazardous waste, and strictly prevent and control the environmental risks of hazardous waste. The second is to deepen scientific and technological support, strengthen the deployment of scientific and technological research and development projects for the prevention and control of environmental risks of hazardous waste and the use and disposal of hazardous waste, and accelerate the technical support role of the national and six regional hazardous waste environmental risk prevention and control technology centers. The third is to strengthen the linkage between supervision, monitoring and law enforcement, continue to crack down on environmental violations involving hazardous waste, and use reporting and rewards to increase the enthusiasm of public and social organizations to participate.