use products, discourages overly elaborate product packaging and stresses the importance of reusing building materials. The law has put forward some economic incentives to promote a national circular economy, including financial support for key scientific projects on creating a circular economy and preferential tax treatment.

Challenges ahead

Now that the new law has been passed, implementing it will be a challenge for various levels of the government.

China's uneven regional development presents a major challenge. Huang Jianchu, an economic law expert, said that this problem calls for different regional measures to promote an circular economy. In addition to command and control measures, economic incentives should be used to accommodate varied regional situations, he said at the press conference held after the law's passage.

Coming up with customized detailed measures for different industries is also a pressing and complicated task for the future. Relevant departments of the State Council have been working on industry-specific rules and standards, such as detailed administrative rules on the recovery and disposal of electric waste. It will take them considerable time to produce detailed implementation rules, but without such procedures, it would be difficult to implement a conceptual law, said Xu Zhihong, President of Peking University, who is also with the NPC's Committee of Legislative Affairs.

In addition, some local governments and enterprises may not have strong incentives to implement the law, fearing that some measures may slow down the local economy and hurt the job market, said Ma Haiwei, another NPC deputy.

Because developing a national circular economy is a demanding social project that calls for new growth and pollution control models, it cannot be accomplished overnight, some experts said. Much more than a conceptual law is needed to put the national economic system on a sustainable track, they said.