BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese customs have seized 58 people on suspicion of smuggling 111,200 tonnes of waste including waste plastics and slags during a special customs crackdown, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC) Tuesday.
At around 6 p.m., 75 teams of 416 local customs investigators carried out raids under the unified direction of the GAC across 11 provincial-level regions, including Tianjin and Guangdong, and cracked down on 23 waste-trafficking gangs.
A customs official said that the imported solid waste and illegal smuggling activities continued to abate as China persistently fights against smuggled waste.
Last year, the country launched five rounds of crackdowns on trash smuggling, investigating 481 cases of smuggling foreign trash and seizing 1.55 million tonnes of illegal waste imports, customs data showed.
Chinese customs will continue to strengthen monitoring and severely crack down on illegal cases, and urged criminals to voluntarily surrender, said the official.
China began importing solid waste as a source of raw materials in the 1980s and for years has been the world's largest importer, despite its weak capacity in garbage disposal. Some companies have profited by illegally bringing foreign waste into the country, posing a threat to the environment and public health.
As part of its anti-pollution efforts, the government decided to phase out and halt such imports by the end of 2019.
