Pollution-haunted City Promotes Clean ProductionTaiyuan, the first trial city in China designated by the United Nations to experiment with clean production, has been stepping up efforts to spread the practice of clean production to ease the pressure on the environment.The city has so far invested a total of 1.5 billion yuan in 15 clean production projects. About 20 percent of the backbone enterprises in the city are engaged in clean production, giving new hope to the heavily polluted city. The city was selected as the first trial city to enforce clean production in China by the United Nations Environment Program and the central government. Ten enterprises in the city have been chosen to experiment with clean production. The city has focused its clean production endeavor on full utilization of coal powder and treatment of sewage water. The Taiyuan Steel Group, for example, has banned the use of sulphur- heavy coal, phased out six steel converters and moved five converters to suburban areas, reducing the annual discharge of solid garbage by 100,000 tons, saving about 70,000 tons of coal a year. To clean up its production, the city also closed down more than 200 small mines and revoked the licenses of over 300 small enterprises that emit heavy pollution. High and new technologies have also been introduced to upgrade traditional industries. Taiyuan is expected to realize clean production in 50 percent of its backbone enterprises by 2001 and build itself into a model city for clean production by 2010. Clean production has already been adopted in more than 200 enterprises in China. |
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