The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has issued the “Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Environmental Management of Hazardous Wastes and Strictly Preventing and Controlling Environmental Risks” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guiding Opinions”), on February 5th, 2025, aiming to closely guard against environmental risks of hazardous waste, with the promotion of full-process information-based environmental supervision and strict control over the proportion of landfill disposal as key measures. It seeks to enhance the efficiency of hazardous waste environmental management, optimize the utilization and disposal methods, and firmly hold the safety baseline of hazardous waste ecological environment.

The Guiding Opinions proposes that by 2026, full-process information-based supervision will be fully covered among key regulated units for hazardous waste environment nationwide. By 2027, it is expected that all national hazardous waste related units will be under full-process information-based supervision. The proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal will decrease steadily, and the capacity for utilization and disposal as well as the level of environmental risk prevention will be further enhanced. By 2030, the proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal nationwide will be controlled within 10%, and the environmental risks of hazardous waste will be effectively controlled.

To achieve these goals, the “Guiding Opinions” propose three key work measures:

Firstly, enhance the capacity for hazardous waste collection and disposal. This measure promotes the convenience of hazardous waste collection and the expeditiousness of its transfer; dynamically improves the centralized disposal guarantee system for hazardous waste, and perfect the collection and disposal system for medical waste.

Secondly, optimize hazardous waste utilization (recycling and reuse) and disposal methods. This measure will guide the adjustment of the structure of hazardous waste utilization and disposal, enhance the level of construction and operation of hazardous waste utilization and disposal facilities, and reduce the volume and proportion of hazardous waste landfill disposal.

Thirdly, improve the environmental management system for hazardous waste. This includes specification on the main responsibility of enterprises, application of the real-time dynamic monitoring of the entire process of hazardous waste, and promotion on the classification and management of hazardous waste.

To ensure the effective implementation of those measures in the “Guiding Opinions,”, the MEE will focus on the following three aspects for implementation:

1. Strengthen Organizational Implementation: Local ecological and environmental departments at all levels are required to improve organizational mechanisms. They will guide and supervise relevant enterprises to strictly implement hazardous waste environmental management systems, enhance hazardous waste environmental governance, and closely guard against hazardous waste environmental risks.
2. Deepen Technological Support: The Ministry will enhance the deployment of scientific research projects for hazardous waste environmental risk prevention, utilization and disposal. It will also accelerate the role of the national and six regional hazardous waste environmental risk prevention technology centers in providing technical support.
3. Enhance Supervision, Monitoring, and Law Enforcement Linkage: The Ministry will continue to severely crack down on illegal activities related to hazardous waste. Measures such as reward schemes for reporting will be adopted to increase the enthusiasm of the public and social organizations to participate.

This is the first time a quantitative requirement is set for the proportion of hazardous waste disposed in landfills and the first time that MEE proposes improving the hazardous waste recycling system.