NETDA makes strides in green development

Authorities in the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Area (NETDA) in East China's Jiangsu province have in recent years been making efforts to encourage enterprises to become more sustainable.

For example, authorities have unveiled an action plan and an evaluation system to encourage more enterprises to put environmental protection facilities into operation, with major enterprises investing 250 million yuan ($35.09 million) in building an industrial park free of extraneous odor in 2022.

Toray Fibers (Nantong) Co, a Japanese textile enterprise, is a leader in reducing resource consumption and emissions. It has introduced equipment for wastewater treatment, wastewater recycling, and reclaimed water reuse over the past 10 years, greatly reducing water consumption.

Toray's reuse rate of printing and dyeing wastewater is 85 percent, much higher than the national standard of 40 percent, and it has adopted high-concentration sewage disposal technology to increase the reuse rate of overall wastewater over the next three years.

Toray has also upgraded its raw materials, manufacturing equipment and technology to advance its sustainable development, and spends up to 30 million yuan every year to limit its oil pollution discharge, said Qin Zhaoqiong, the company's general manager.

Authorities will also roll out a series of policies to control pollution sources and cultivate environmentally-friendly industries in the future.