People's Daily Chengdu, December 16 (Zhu Hong) Today (16th), the 2016 Green Development Forum on Waste Sorting and Resource Recycling was held in Chengdu, Sichuan. The forum adheres to the zero-waste philosophy, which states that "the entire process from design, production, packaging, use to final waste disposal is properly managed, aiming to minimize or make the residual waste essentially harmless to the environment." With the theme of "Looking Ahead to the 13th Five-Year Plan: Integration of Two Networks and Mandatory Waste Sorting," the forum engages in dialogue and deeply discusses various attempts and successful experiences in waste sorting, contributing to waste reduction and classification during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

In 2016, the first year of the 13th Five-Year Plan, the Chengdu regenerative resource market was in a state of weakness, affected by both domestic and international economic conditions. Key types of regenerative resources continued to decline, low-value recyclables turned into环卫garbage, and the profits of regenerative resource recycling and utilization enterprises consistently dropped, leading to difficulties in industry operations. Statistics indicate that in 2015, there were over 4,000 businesses involved in the regenerative resource sector in Chengdu, employing approximately 100,000 people. The total amount of regenerative resources recycled was around 5.5 million tons (including: paper products about 1.6 million tons, steel 2 million tons, plastics 650,000 tons, precious metals 250,000 tons, and others 1 million tons), with a total value of approximately 16.5 billion yuan.

Sun Xiaoping stated, "The value of scrap has dropped, with some even falling below the cost of recycling, losing their 'exchange value' and becoming a 'sourgrapes' in the recycling process, ultimately turning into urban waste. Low-value recyclable waste that was once recyclable is now discarded in massive quantities, entering the waste recycling phase and placing a huge burden on urban sanitation management, waste incineration, and landfilling. To reverse this situation, policy guidance is needed, along with incentives for the development of the recycling industry. Integrating recycling of recyclable resources and垃圾分类, promoting the integration of the two networks, achieving waste reduction, turning waste into treasure, and expanding the range of recyclable resources, as well as improving the utilization rate of resources."

Since 2006, when Chengdu was designated as a pilot city for the construction of a recycling system by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, the city has undergone pilot construction, operational exploration, and promotion of recycling models. It has established an integrated recycling system that encompasses the entire city, with the recycling market as the platform, community recycling outlets as the support, and modern logistics as the纽带.

Currently, Chengdu's recycling and utilization system has established over 4,000 community recycling stations, 13 recycling markets, 4 sorting centers, and two recycling and utilization bases in Pengzhou and Xinzhen. It has become a service platform for concentrated trading and operation for recycling businesses in Chengdu, providing public welfare services. It has basically met the daily needs of citizens and organizations to accumulate and sell recycled resources, and has played a positive role in improving the urban and rural environment and promoting the development of a circular economy.

Simultaneously, in the era of mobile internet, the recycling resource industry is also innovating and transforming, moving towards the "Internet+" direction. The Chengdu recycling resource industry is gradually offering appointment services, online recycling, and other services that are developing towards e-commerce.

The Zero Waste Forum actively advocates for social support and implementation of various policies, economic, and technical measures conducive to constructing a sustainable comprehensive waste management system, including eco-design of products, restriction on the use of toxic materials, waste reduction, source separation, recycling, clean production, and resource recovery technologies, to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development in waste management.