China to reuse 60 percent of its trash by 2025

China aims to reuse 60 percent of its urban household waste by 2025, up from 50 percent last year, as it tries to improve its trash handling capacity after failing to meet some of its 2016-2020 targets, its top planning commission said yesterday.

Dealing with the growing volumes of waste has emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing China’s regulators, with rising urban populations consuming increasing amounts of consumer goods and most major cities surrounded by rings of landfill.

The National Development and Reform Commission said urban waste handling capacity reached 1.27 million tons a day last year, up 63 percent compared with 2015, but some places were still struggling to keep up with the growing volumes of trash.

Half of China’s cities had not built waste incineration plants, and many in central and western regions had also failed to meet targets on treating hazardous waste, the NDRC said.

As well as raising the urban trash utilisation rate to 60 percent, China will also raise incineration levels to 65 percent, up from 45 percent.