VATIS UPDATE Article

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced the new regulations, stipulating detailed requirements on recyclers’ location, operation scale, energy consumption, technology and equipment, environmental protection, safety, quality, as well as inspection. Most notably, new PET bottle recyclers, considered category I recyclers, need to meet a minimum annual processing capacity of 30,000 metric tons. Existing PET recyclers must process annual capacity of no less than 20,000 tons.

The minimum capacity for category II recyclers, companies that sort, clean and shred plastic scrap, is also 30,000 tons for new players and 20,000 for existing companies. Category III recyclers, or companies that extrude reprocessed pellets, need to have at least 5,000 metric tons of capacity for industry newcomers and 3,000 tons for existing players. Companies will be required to have properly sized processing areas that matches their capacity.