China targets $287b resource recycling industry

BEIJING -- China will boost the annual output value of its resource recycling industry to 1.8 trillion yuan ($287 billion) by 2015 as part of the country's bid to develop a circular economy.

The government will also increase the resource productivity, or economic output per unit of resource use, by 15 percent as of the end of 2015, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.

The goals were written in a national plan on spurring the development of a circular economy recently released by the State Council, or China's cabinet, the NDRC said in a statement on its website.

Major tasks listed in the plan include building nationwide industrial and agricultural systems that are cleaner and allow more recycling of renewable resources and promoting green consumption.

It's imperative for China to speed up developing the circular economy as the country sees continuously growing energy and resource demand, piling waste and rising pressure in tackling climate changes, the statement quoted an unnamed NDRC official as saying.

China pins hopes on circular economy, an economy highly efficient and recyclable in resource use, to shift its growth pattern to a more sustainable and greener one.