Solid waste smuggling sees threefold rise

Chinese Customs intercepted 221 instances of smuggling involving solid waste last year, a threefold increase from 2012, a senior anti-smuggling official from the General Administration of Customs said.

Authorities confiscated 976,500 metric tons of illegal waste material last year, an increase of 150 percent from 2012.

"Our intensified efforts and huge price differences for waste disposal between China and some developed countries contributed to the sharp increase in discoveries of solid waste being smuggled into China," said Xu Wenrong, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs.