The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently issued Development Plan for Circular Economy in the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-2025), according to which an industrial system featuring resource circulation and a resource recycling system will be basically established, both by 2025, when the nation will have greatly improved resource use efficiency and utilized more renewable resources to replace primary resources.

Output rate of major resources in 2025 will be 20% higher than in 2020, while energy consumption and water use per unit of GDP will be 13.5% and 16% lower, respectively. Comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw will remain above 86%, that of bulk solid wastes will reach 60%, and that of construction wastes will be 60% too. Other targets set for 2025 mainly include utilizing 60 million tons of waste paper and 320 million tons of waste steel, raising output of secondary nonferrous metals to 20 million tons, and increasing output value of resource recycling industry to RMB5 trillion.