Dongguan, China — Worries about further tightening of China's imports of scrap plastic were front and center at the Replas conference and trade show in the southern city of Dongguan May 11, with businesses reporting new difficulties and peppering government officials for clarity.

"This is the most difficult conference in my experience," said Wang Wang, secretary general of the China Scrap Plastics Association, the organizer of the May 11-12 event.

Beijing launched a new nationwide crackdown on scrap imports, called National Sword, in February. That was followed up by an April 18 announcement at the 34th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, headed by China's President Xi Jinping, that called for unspecified further restrictions on imported recyclables.

While many details remain murky, some recycling industry officials are interpreting the April 18 announcement as a sign the government will move toward banning scrap imports.

"It is a significant change of [the] recycling business," said Kathy Xuan, a board member of the recycling committee of the Beijing-based China Plastics Processing Industry Association, and CEO of recycler Parc Corp. in Romeoville, Ill.

She called the announcement a "huge surprise" and said it could prompt recycling companies to consider leaving China.

Plastics News file photo Xuan

A translation of the order provided by Xuan said the Chinese government is concerned about the health and environmental impacts from imports of all kinds of scrap materials, and said that under timelines yet to be developed, imports "will be significantly reduced."

One target has already emerged: hard-to-clean plastic bags.

A government official's presentation to the packed Replas conference room included pictures of badly soiled bales of bags and recycling plants choked with filthy air.

Later, CEO Shan Xia Qiang of Japan-based recycler Asia Star Business Co. told Plastics News that since last month he has not been able to export scrap bags from Japan to his plant in the Chinese city of Taichang. He plans to recycle the bags at a sister plant in Japan.

Echoing the April 18 order, a government official suggested that processing of domestic waste should be increased.

"We need to process domestic plastic scrap instead of imported scrap," said Ju Huanzheng of the government's Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, speaking through an interpreter.

The National Sword crackdown this year is part of a complementary effort, Blue Sky, to crack down on smuggled waste. Last year, inspectors tracked down 60,000 tons of illicit plastic scrap.

Recyclers in China are used to aggressive government monitoring of imported scrap. Beijing's Operation Green Fence dramatically cut down on scrap imports from around the world in 2013.

At the round table discussion that wrapped up the afternoon session of Replas, the concern was palpable as audience members peppered the speakers with questions about the forthcoming policies.

"Can we have clear standards we need to meet?" asked one recycler. Another complained that Guangzhou, the nation's biggest entrance port for scrap plastics, will no longer accept scrap bound for inland recyclers.

Out on the trade show floor, sales manager Myron Cai of PET recycler Lunnex Chemical Fiber (Fuzhou) Co. Ltd. was concerned that the government might ban the import of all waste.

CSPA Executive President Steve Wong told Plastics News that the government is targeting "anything which is contaminated," such as post-consumer and agricultural scrap plastic. The government now reckons 0.5 percent as the threshold of contamination, Wong said.

"You need to decide if the scrap you are recycling can fit into the government system," said Ju.

Chinese plastics recyclers are already moving toward greater reliance on domestic scrap. Scrap imports peaked in 2011, according to government data presented at the conference.