Vast areas in west China are trying to change their reputation as wasteful of resources through developing a new recycling-based economy (RBE). "To gain sustainable development, the area must stop its startling waste in resource exploration and take measures to protect the worsening environment," said Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the State Environment Protection Administration, at the ongoing international forum on APEC RBE & China's Western Development. The forum aims to boost cooperation on RBE among countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It opened on Friday in Yinchuan, capital city of northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The RBE concept is that one facility's waste output, including energy, water, materials, as well as information, can be another facility's input. "Development based on a circular economy will be essential for China to sustain its fast-paced economic growth while mitigating negative ecological impact, especially in the west," said Mao Rubai, chairman of Environment and Resources Protection Committee of China's National People's Congress, at the three-day meeting which will last through the 5th. A total of 12 provinces and autonomous regions, including Ningxia and Xinjiang, abound in resources such as oil, coal, natural gas and non-ferrous metals. Figures show over 60 percent of coal reserves, 30 percent of oil reserves and 25 percent of natural gas reserves lie in this area. The reckless exploitation of such resources has led to energy resource waste. According to experts, the coal recovery ratio in Shaanxi and Xinjiang is only around 30 percent on average, 40 percentage points lower than that of the 75 percent required by the technological standards for the coal industry. "This means only 30 percent of coal storage is dug out while 70 percent is left underground forever," Mao said. Experts estimated that from the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949 up to 2003, coal output totaled 35 billion tons whereas twice as much was wasted from a storage consumption of 100 billion tons. The same situation has occurred in oil exploitation. The average recovery ratio of oil wells was only 40 percent, and the ratio of small oil wells in north Shaanxi was even less than 20 percent. Fortunately, local governments have realized the importance of resource protection and marched towards "sheltered exploitation." So far, most enterprises in Ningxia, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Qinghai are trying to transfer raw materials into products with high added value after further processing. "The pattern of developing our economy based on coal sales is ending," said Chen Shu, vice president of Ningxia Colliery Group. He promised to eliminate the waste of limited resources and vowed to realize a recovery ratio of over 90 percent in his company while others target 75 percent. Li Yongjun, board chairman of Gansu-based Jinchuan Mining Co. Ltd., China's largest nickel, cobalt and platinum enterprise, is even more aggressive. He wishes to increase its recovery ratio to 94 percent through technological changes at a cost of 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars). Besides their efforts to increase recovery ratios, more and more enterprises have shifted their attention to the effective control of wasted gas, water and sediment coming from oil, coal and gas exploitation. The waste can even be used as clean and safe energy, which would meet the RBE requirement. The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in November 2002, created an ambitious blueprint for China's development in the next twenty years. It wishes to quadruple the country's GDP by the year 2020 and to enhance the standard of living and environmental protection as well. The pursuit of a new, hyper-efficient industrialization model has become China's new pathway in reconciling and linking the dual endeavors of sustaining high-speed economic growth and reversing environmental degradation. The hallmarks of this industrialization will be a focus on high- technology products, good economic returns, and low natural resource consumption and environmental pollution. "The RBE is the strategic pathway both for achieving China's sustainable development and boosting China's western development strategy, during which the government encourages experimentation in the coal, electric power and metal industries," said Mao. He praised western China's provinces and autonomous regions for having taken the lead in developing a recycling based economy as they energetically map out plans in accordance with their local environments and industrial structures.

来源：Xinhua News Agency