Luo Bingsheng, board chairman of Shougang Corporation, said that, in addition to reducing its own pollution level, the companywill also provide assistance with respect to the disposal of public waste and the general environment of the city.

Located in the western outskirts of Beijing, Shougang, with an annual steel output of six million tons, is commonly regarded as one of Beijing's major polluters. Faced with the proposal that the company, with its 120,400 employees, be relocated outside of Beijing, Luo has instead opted to join the combat against pollution.

The company began to build its environmental protection capacity in 1995. The company's researchers are currently experimenting with a technology for the disposal of plastic waste using a blast furnace and a coke furnace, Luo said. Through this method,150,000 tons of plastic waste can be disposed of each year."It is our hope that in this way, the problem of Beijing's 'white pollution' can be resolved," Luo said.

The company is also converting its abandoned workshops and lotsinto a "green" area, a model in energy conservation and environmental protection.

Luo said that by 2005, the company will reduce its energy consumption in steel production by 30 percent, and its coal consumption will drop from its present 4.1 million tons to 2.8 million tons. These reductions will in turn reduce the discharge of sulfur dioxide and dust by 31 percent.

The company has thus far invested 980 million yuan (118 millionUS dollars) in ten environmental protection projects. Luo said thecompany will make every effort to pass the ISO14000 authentication, an internationally accepted standard in environmental management, by 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2002)