China continues crackdown on environmental violations

China has ramped up its crackdown on environmental violations related to hazardous waste according to Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment.

As of the end of 2021, China had seen its capability to dispose of hazardous waste increase to 170 million metric tons per year, he said in a report to a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, on Tuesday.

The capacity is 3.3 times what it was at the end of 2015, he said.

Huang said various government bodies have made joint efforts to crack down on violations related to hazardous waste in the past three years.

The joint campaign launched by the ministry, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security in 2020, for example, has seen 11,132 such violations uncovered. A total of 886 million yuan ($131.9 million) of penalties were collected.

He said 1,890 of the cases have been transferred to public security authorities for further investigation.

The country's legislature adopted an amendment to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes in April 2020.

Since the amendment came into force in September 2020, courts across the country have delivered more verdicts that require compensation for damage caused by hazardous waste violations, Huang said.

He said, to date, total compensation in cases concluded by courts across the country has reached almost 5.4 billion yuan.