China has incorporated sweeping human rights protection provisions in new environmental legislation recently passed by the 11th National People’s Congress, according to a report in PackWebasia.com, the industry resource for the Asian packaging supply chain.

Six years in the planning, the new law, the Circular Economy Promotion Act, was passed on 29 August 2008 and will come into force on 1 January 2009.

While the main purpose is to restructure China’s entire economic base, it effectively takes protection of the environment, conservation of resources and the reduction of packaging and post-consumer waste as the basis for an entirely new economic system.

The Circular Economy Law aims to change the entire country from a resource-consuming economy to a circular system in which all waste, heat, water, gas and packaging is channelled back into a closed-loop process to be re-used, recycled or to generate energy and dramatically reduce China’s reliance on natural resources.

Whistle-blower clause

However, a ‘whistleblower clause’ tucked away in the law (Article 10) expressly gives citizens the right, to report any enterprise, government agency, ministry or official for any action that damages the environment, or wastes natural resources.

To prevent cover-ups, a further measure requires that all complaints be made public, investigations into environmental abuse must be conducted and the results must be publicized in the media.

Whistleblowers are also assured that they will be protected from prosecution by the state – quite the opposite - local authorities are required to devise a system for paying rewards to complainants. 

According to PackWebasia publisher, Stuart Hoggard “These measures are unheard of in China, the Circular Economy Law will be a major disruptive force in the economy, requiring households to sort, recover and recycle to conserve resources and reduce waste.

“Clearly the government understands that in order to get entire population of 1.3 billion people to buy-in on a nationwide scale they must be empowered and given a sense of environmental stewardship”

The Right to Know

The Law also contains a provision giving the public the right to access environmental information to help promote environmental protection and the Central Government’s plan to transform China’s economy.

While not quite a Freedom of Information Law, these new rights include unrestricted access to; regulations, rules, standards relating to environmental protection, environmental protection plans, quality status, statistics and environmental investigation information.

Public access must be provided to information on the type, volume and disposal of solid waste produced in medium to large cities.

Environmental impact assessments will now be required to be lodged before major projects are launched, particularly construction projects, and details of the environmental impact assessment documents, results of the review process, inspection, approvals and licenses which are issued must also be made available for public debate.

The human rights provisions in the Circular Economy Promotion Law reinforce and give legal ‘teeth’ to earlier policy documents issued by the Ministry of Environment, the ‘Measures on Open Environmental Information’ (reported by PackWebasia.com in June 2008) which were issued to: “propel and regulate the disclosure of environmental information by administrative departments, by enterprises to maintain the rights and interests of citizens, and organizations to obtain environmental information’.

Under the Packaging Recycling Master Plan, China has been gradually overhauling its environmental legislation since January 2008, with the introduction of the restriction on plastic shopping bags, followed by bans on the import of post-consumer waste plastic and certain paper grades, regulations governing disposal of electronic waste (WEEE), the introduction of rules governing ink chemistry, eco-labelling, packaging materials, and ‘excessive packaging’.

The new Circular Economy legislation gives these administrative measures the force of law, and lays the foundation for further tightening of China’s packaging restrictions.

·        A detailed analysis of China’s Packaging Recycling Master Plan is available from packwebasia.com : http://www.packwebasia.com/library/24.html

·        For more on the Circular Economy Promotion Law see: http://www.packwebasia.com/environment-law/china-passes-cycling-economy-law.html

For more on China’s Packaging Recycling Master Plan: