2025-2026 Review and Study on Environmental Policies by Shouxin

2025 is the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan for ecological and environmental protection, while 2026 is the starting year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. The two rounds of policies form a key connection between the final push and the initial layout.

This report, based on official policy documents from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Finance, and other relevant departments, and combining the policy implementation status in 2025 with policy trends in 2026, provides policy interpretation and adaptation solutions. It covers areas such as water pollution control, solid waste disposal, emission standards, and regulatory mechanisms, focusing on the core concerns of end-users in municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater (such as papermaking), and mining. It extracts the core requirements directly related to pollution control in the production process from the two years' policies, interprets the impact of policy guidance on enterprise operations, and outlines adaptation strategies to provide a reference for enterprises to operate in compliance with regulations and achieve efficient pollution control.

The following is an analysis by Shouxin of the core changes and unchanged principles in China's environmental protection policies from 2025 to 2026:

[Key Changes]The environmental policy in 2026 will see five significant adjustments, the key being a strategic shift from the past "dual control of energy consumption" to a more precise "dual control of carbon emissions." Simultaneously, the state has released its first special plan for solid waste management and upgraded several national standards for wastewater and solid waste.

[Unchanging Principles]The nation's determination and long-term direction regarding environmental protection have remained highly stable. The three major battles against pollution, the ecological protection red line, routine environmental inspections, the green development concept, and the environmental safety bottom line will continue to serve as our guiding principles.

Based on the above analysis, we offer five compliance recommendations for enterprises : First, establish and improve a carbon management system; second, reassess the compliance and resource recovery potential of solid waste treatment; third, actively align with new national standards and upgrade environmental protection facilities in a timely manner; fourth, pay attention to the risks of new pollutants and establish an assessment mechanism; and fifth, actively participate in performance-based grading to strive for more favorable policy treatment.

I. Core Policy Tone: Deepening Precision Pollution Control and Tackling Key Areas

In 2025, the national ecological and environmental protection work will be guided by the "building of a beautiful China," adhering to precise, scientific, and law-based pollution control, and focusing on deepening and concluding the battle against pollution.

At the 2025 National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu clearly pointed out that we should "focus on building a beautiful China, coordinate efforts to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, greening, and growth, fight the battle against pollution, continue to advance the battles to protect blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil, and innovate in the treatment of solid waste and new pollutants."

The policy exhibits three main characteristics: "full-chain management and control, multi-dimensional collaboration, and strong regulatory implementation." Among them, the core policy directions directly related to end customers are concentrated in three major areas: water pollution control, solid waste management, and emission reduction in key industries.

II. Key Policy Points and Impacts Related to Enterprises

(I) Water pollution control: Upgraded management of the entire watershed, and intensified efforts to treat pollutant discharge outlets and black and odorous water bodies.

The 2025 Blue Water Protection Campaign will focus on promoting the integrated management of "three waters" (water resources, water environment, and water ecology), with core requirements including:

1. Significant progress has been made in the remediation of pollutant discharge outlets. According to official data from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, as of the first half of 2025, approximately 580,000 kilometers of river and lake shorelines had been investigated across the seven major river basins nationwide, identifying 360,000 sewage outlets discharging into rivers. The remediation rate for these outlets exceeded 90%, and the remediation rate for key bays reached 84%. The General Office of the State Council required that the remediation of sewage outlets in the main streams and important tributaries, key lakes, and key bays of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huai River, Hai River, Pearl River, Songliao River, and Taihu Lake basins be basically completed by the end of 2025.

2. Clear goals for the treatment of black and odorous water bodies. Black and odorous water bodies in prefecture-level and above cities will be basically eliminated; the elimination rate in county-level cities will exceed 90%; and the remediation rate of black and odorous water bodies in rural areas under national supervision will reach 82.3%. A joint document issued by 17 government authorities requires that by the end of 2025, black and odorous water bodies in the built-up areas of county-level cities be basically eliminated, with the Yangtze River Delta region striving to achieve this one year ahead of schedule; and that prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Basin basically resolve the problem of mixed and incorrect connections in municipal sewage pipe networks, basically eliminate direct discharge of domestic sewage, and increase the centralized collection rate of urban domestic sewage to over 70%.

3. The governance of key river basins has been continuously deepened. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has carried out in-depth special actions to control water pollution in industrial parks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and provinces (regions) along the Yellow River, promoting the construction of more than 2,700 centralized sewage treatment facilities and resolved wastewater treatment issues in more than 3,500 industrial enterprises.

(II) Solid waste and key industry management: targeted governance strengthened, risk prevention and control upgraded.

In 2025, solid waste management will focus on the entire chain of "source control—process disposal—resource utilization," with core requirements for industries such as mining and papermaking including:

1. Tailings dam management is being comprehensively promoted. Data from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in October 2024 showed that 1,440 tailings dams in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and 360 tailings dams in the Yellow River Basin had completed "one dam, one policy" management. Henan Province requires that the total number of tailings dams be reduced by more than 30% by the end of 2026 compared to the end of 2023. New mining projects must prioritize the use of existing tailings dams; if new dams are necessary, the local government should, in principle, adopt a policy of equal or reduced replacement.

2.  Accelerated Utilization of Industrial Solid Waste. The disposal and utilization of bulk industrial solid waste is accelerating, and the resource utilization rate of solid waste such as sludge from the paper industry needs to be improved. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment requires increased efforts to address the geological environment of historically abandoned mines, waste tailings, and water and soil pollution in mining areas, gradually improving the water and soil environment of mining areas, encouraging the comprehensive utilization of production waste rock and mineral processing tailings, and promoting backfilling techniques.

3. Strengthened Hazardous Waste Management. The "1+6+20" major hazardous waste projects will be promoted, and the standardized disposal of industrial hazardous waste (including oilfield oily sludge) will be strengthened. The "Measures for the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution from Tailings" clearly stipulates that newly built, renovated, or expanded tailings ponds must be equipped with pollution prevention and control facilities such as seepage prevention, leachate collection, and wastewater treatment as required.

III. Governance Adaptation Strategies under the 2025 Policy

Faced with targeted policy pressure on water pollution and solid waste management, enterprises need to shift from "passive rectification" to "proactive adaptation." The core approach includes:

1. Improve the precision of wastewater treatment. Differentiated treatment processes are employed for different water qualities (such as complex pollutants in industrial wastewater and high suspended solids in tailings water). Polyacrylamide, as a highly efficient flocculant, plays a crucial role in this process. Through its unique polymer chain structure, it utilizes charge neutralization and adsorption bridging to cause colloidal particles and suspended solids in wastewater to form large, dense flocs, accelerating sedimentation, significantly reducing turbidity, and improving effluent clarity.

2.  Strengthen the coordinated treatment of solid waste and wastewater. Reducing secondary pollution, especially in tailings dam treatment and sludge dewatering, requires the use of highly efficient treatment agents and technologies to improve treatment efficiency and reduce operating costs. In key stages such as wastewater flocculation and sedimentation, sludge dewatering, and tailings sludge-water separation, selecting agents with strong compatibility and stable treatment effects is the core support for achieving emission standards and cost control.

3. Optimize reagent selection and process adaptation. Select the appropriate type of polyacrylamide according to different application scenarios:

I. Policy Initial Tone: Collaborative Governance as the Core, Empowering High-Quality Development

2026, as the starting year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, environmental policies will focus on collaborative governance to drive a paradigm shift in ecological and environmental technology, shifting from narrow-scope environmental technology to a broader-scope environmental technology. This will deeply embed environmental reduction and carbon emissions into the entire production process of enterprises, fostering new types of productivity. The policies will exhibit four major trends: "deepened regional collaboration, upgraded standards system, strengthened public oversight, and the effective implementation of policy benefits," further clarifying the governance direction and upgrading path for end-users.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has clearly stated that collaborative governance will be a key focus in 2026. It will be used as a lever to deeply integrate collaborative governance into all aspects of planning and design, scientific research, and regional practices, comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China. This shift in concept means to end-users that future pollution control will no longer be an independent act by a single enterprise, but will need to be integrated into a broader framework of regional and industrial chain collaboration.

II. Key Policy Points and Customer Relationship Analysis for 2026

(I) Accelerated Regional Collaborative Governance: Key regions take the lead in breakthroughs, and cross-regional co-governance becomes the norm.

The General Office of the State Council forwarded the "Implementation Opinions on Building Pilot Zones for a Beautiful China," clearly defining five major regions—Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the Yellow River Basin—as leading regions in advancing green development. Seven departments, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, jointly issued the "Action Plan for Building Pilot Zones for a Beautiful China in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region," the "Action Plan for Building Pilot Zones for a Beautiful China in the Yangtze River Delta Region," and the "Action Plan for Building Pilot Zones for a Beautiful China in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," marking a new stage in regional collaborative governance.

Requirements directly relevant to businesses include:

•  Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: Strengthen the protection of beautiful bays in the Bohai Sea (related to coastal sewage treatment plants and industrial wastewater discharge)

•  Yangtze River Delta: Promote cross-regional emissions trading (benefiting compliant enterprises)

•  Yangtze River Basin: Strictly implement the basin-wide ecological compensation mechanism (strengthening the governance responsibilities of sewage treatment plants, mining enterprises, and paper mills within the basin).

•  Yellow River Basin: Promoting the green transformation of energy bases (requiring oilfields and mining enterprises to improve pollution control levels)

(II) Upgrading of Standards and Regulatory Systems: Strengthening Legal Safeguards and Ensuring

Full-Process Supervision Several key regulations and standards will be officially implemented in 2026:

1. The "Regulations on Ecological and Environmental Monitoring" officially came into effect. This is China's first specialized administrative regulation on ecological and environmental monitoring . It was adopted at the 70th Executive Meeting of the State Council on October 17, 2025, and will take effect on January 1, 2026. The regulations consist of seven chapters and 49 articles, establishing a comprehensive, clearly defined, and effectively supervised institutional framework. For the first time, it formally establishes a classified management model for public monitoring and self-monitoring. The regulations impose strict requirements on enterprises' self-monitoring:

• Self-monitoring should be carried out in accordance with relevant norms and standards for ecological and environmental monitoring, and a monitoring plan should be formulated to specify the location of monitoring points, monitoring indicators, monitoring frequency, and monitoring methods.

• The main monitoring points for self-monitoring shall be equipped with and use video surveillance equipment that can acquire the monitoring process and the operation status of the monitoring equipment, and shall be connected to the ecological and environmental authorities or other relevant departments.

2. Upgraded Requirements for Public Access to Environmental Protection Facilities. The new regulations require companies in industries such as petrochemicals, power, steel, and building materials to disclose the operation of core facilities such as wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal, and to accept public supervision through methods such as "offline visits + online live broadcasts," opening facilities no less than four times a year.

In March 2025, the General Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the first batch of environmental protection facilities open to the public in the petrochemical, power, steel, and building materials industries, with 19 units from Sinopec successfully selected. Enterprises are required to select representative open sites based on their production processes and technological characteristics to demonstrate pollutant emissions, the basic operating principles of environmental protection facilities, and self-monitoring of surrounding environmental factors such as soil and groundwater.

(III) Policy dividends are released: 52.842 billion yuan in subsidies have been implemented to provide precise support for pollution control.

The central government's special subsidy for pollution control investment in 2026 has been launched, with a total amount of 52.842 billion yuan , focusing on supporting five major areas: air pollution prevention and control, water pollution prevention and control, soil pollution prevention and control, rural environmental remediation, and waste electrical and electronic equipment disposal.

Among them, the water pollution prevention and control area includes a special subsidy of 4 billion yuan for the construction of beautiful rivers and lakes, supporting the construction and renovation of urban sewage pipe networks and water-saving renovation of key industries.

The application requirements clearly stipulate three ironclad rules: "policy alignment, completeness of procedures, and quantifiable performance," emphasizing the quantifiability of emission reduction targets. Specific requirements include:

• The company has a good credit record, with no major environmental penalties or breaches of trust in the past three years, and is not listed in the list of seriously dishonest entities.

• The project must complete procedures such as project approval, land use, environmental impact assessment, and energy conservation review, and the construction progress shall not exceed 50%.

• The support ratio for projects in the eastern region shall not exceed 40% of the total investment, in the central region not more than 60%, and in the western region not more than 70%, with the maximum support amount for a single project not exceeding 100 million yuan in principle.

III. Corporate Response Strategies and Governance Upgrade Directions for 2026

In line with the policy direction for 2026, enterprises need to upgrade from "compliance and standards compliance" to "efficient and collaborative governance," with core strategies including:

1.  Align with regional coordination requirements. Plan pollution control upgrades in advance, especially for enterprises within the river basin and in key areas, strengthening collaboration with surrounding pollution control entities. For example, enterprises in the Yangtze River Economic Belt need to establish pollution control collaboration mechanisms with upstream and downstream enterprises to ensure water quality meets standards across the entire basin.

2.  Capitalize on the Policy Funding Window. Accelerate the upgrading and transformation of pollution control facilities and apply for special subsidies. Enterprises should focus on subsidy areas related to their own business, such as water pollution prevention and control and soil pollution prevention and control, and prepare complete application materials, including pollution control technology solutions, expected emission reduction effects, and investment budgets.

3.  Enhance the digitalization and visualization of governance. Adapt to the requirements of open environmental protection facilities and comprehensive monitoring. Enterprises need to establish a complete online monitoring system to monitor the dosing of agents such as polyacrylamide, treatment effects, and emission data in real time, and be able to display this information to regulatory authorities and the public through online platforms.

In the core treatment phase, further optimization of reagent selection and process adaptation is needed:

High-quality pharmaceutical products can not only help enterprises consistently meet the upgraded standards, but also achieve the dual goals of "emission reduction + cost reduction" by improving processing efficiency and reducing pharmaceutical consumption, which aligns with the core requirements of policies to foster new quality productivity.

I. Application Strategies in Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Municipal wastewater treatment faces challenges such as fluctuating influent water quality, stricter effluent standards (as per the revised "Discharge Standard for Pollutants from Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants"), and policy requirements for the opening of environmental protection facilities and full-process monitoring. Polyacrylamide, as the core flocculant, leverages its unique charge neutralization and bridging adsorption mechanisms to become a key technological support for improving treatment rates and reducing operating costs. The technological advantages of polyacrylamide are:

• Anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) is mainly used in the flocculation and sedimentation stage of high-efficiency sedimentation tanks in municipal wastewater treatment plants to increase the settling velocity and achieve effluent suspended solids (SS) levels below 20 mg/L. Compared to traditional flocculants, polyacrylamide requires only 0.1-0.5 ppm, yet can increase sedimentation efficiency by 3 times.

• Cationic PAM is mainly used in sludge dewatering processes. It is used in conjunction with mainstream sludge dewatering equipment such as plate and frame filter presses, belt filter presses, and centrifugal dewatering machines to form dense flocs in the sludge, reduce the moisture content of the filter cake, and finally reduce the moisture content of the sludge filter cake to below 80% after dewatering, which facilitates the transportation and disposal of sludge (landfill, incineration, composting, etc.).

II. Application Strategies in the Field of Wastewater Treatment in the Paper Industry

In the field of industrial wastewater treatment, the application of polyacrylamide exhibits distinct industry-specific characteristics. For example, the application strategies in the paper industry include:

According to the "Water Pollutant Discharge Standard for Paper Industry (2025 Revised Edition)" issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment at the end of 2024, starting from July 1, 2025, all newly built, renovated, and expanded paper manufacturing projects nationwide must comply with the tightened emission standards, which stipulate COD emission limits of ≤50 mg/L, ammonia nitrogen of ≤6 mg/L, total nitrogen of ≤15 mg/L, and total phosphorus of ≤0.5 mg/L. These standards are 15%-20% stricter than the 2023 version.

The key role of polyacrylamide in papermaking wastewater treatment:

•  Pretreatment stage: The main purpose of this stage is to remove suspended solids (SS) and some colloidal substances from wastewater. Anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) is mainly used. After adding polyacrylamide, the color removal rate of pretreated wastewater can reach over 90%, the SS removal rate over 60%, and the COD removal rate over 25%.

•  Advanced Treatment Stage: After biological treatment, most pollutants in the wastewater have been removed, but some recalcitrant COD, color, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus may still remain. To meet stricter discharge standards or achieve reuse, advanced treatment is required. This stage uses both anionic and cationic PAM; the specific type must be selected based on the customer's water quality. After advanced treatment, the wastewater's indicators will meet discharge standards.

• Sludge Dewatering Section: Throughout the entire process, a large amount of excess sludge is generated from stages such as primary sedimentation tanks, dissolved air flotation tanks, and secondary sedimentation tanks. Sludge treatment is a crucial component of wastewater treatment plants. Sludge dewatering is where polyacrylamide is most commonly used in paper mills, primarily cationic polyacrylamide. This is combined with mainstream sludge dewatering equipment such as plate and frame filter presses, belt filter presses, and centrifugal dewatering machines to form dense flocs in the sludge, reducing the moisture content of the filter cake. Ultimately, the moisture content of the dewatered sludge filter cake can be reduced to below 80%.

III. Application Strategies in the Mining Sector

The mining sector is an important application area for polyacrylamide, especially in tailings treatment and mineral processing wastewater treatment.

Technical advantages: In the beneficiation process of copper, gold, aluminum, and phosphate mines, PAM can promote the aggregation of fine mineral particles suspended in wastewater into larger flocs, accelerating sedimentation and separation.

Equipment: High-efficiency thickener or deep cone thickener.

Function: By adding anionic PAM, tailings particles are rapidly flocculated and settled, increasing the concentration of the tailings slurry from approximately 20-30% to 50-70% (in the form of a thick slurry). This stage can recover approximately 70-80% of the water, with suspended solids typically below 500 mg/L, which can be directly returned to the concentrator for use.

I. Summary of Policy Impact

The core logic of the environmental protection policy in 2025-2026 is "precise attack and coordinated upgrading". For end-user sectors such as municipal sewage, industrial wastewater and mining, it is both a period of continuous pressure to comply with regulations and a policy window for governance upgrading.

Key features of policy implementation in 2025: Significant progress in water pollution control (over 90% of sewage outlets into rivers were treated, and black and odorous water bodies were basically eliminated); solid waste treatment (tailings ponds were treated according to specific policies for each pond) met standards; regulatory enforcement became increasingly stringent; and emission standards continued to rise, placing higher demands on enterprises' technology and management capabilities.

Policy development trends in 2026: Regional collaborative governance becomes the new normal (cross-regional supervision in key areas is tightened); the "Regulations on Ecological and Environmental Monitoring" strengthens legal protection and full-process supervision; RMB 52.842 billion in special funds release dividends; the requirement for opening up environmental protection facilities improves governance transparency (public supervision is increasingly strengthened).

II. Summary of the Value of Polyacrylamide Products

Driven by policy, the value of polyacrylamide in various application fields is becoming increasingly prominent:

III. Recommendations for Corporate Action

1. Accurately align with policies: Identify the gaps between our own governance processes and policy requirements, and formulate phased upgrade plans; focus on regional collaborative governance requirements, and plan ahead for relevant technologies and facilities.

2. Optimize reagent selection: Select the most suitable and stable polyacrylamide products according to industry and water quality characteristics. Cooperate with Shouxin Environmental Protection, the pioneer of stable global polyacrylamide brands, to improve the effect and optimize costs through precise selection; establish a reagent use effect evaluation system and continuously optimize the dosing strategy.

3. Seize the policy dividend window: Apply for special funds for pollution control (with a focus on subsidies for water pollution and soil pollution prevention and control); prepare complete application materials, highlighting the advanced technology and emission reduction effect.

4. Enhance governance transparency: Establish a comprehensive online monitoring system to achieve real-time monitoring of the governance process; strengthen communication with the public to enhance the company's environmental image.

5. Strengthen compliance management: Strictly implement the requirements of laws and regulations such as the "Regulations on Ecological and Environmental Monitoring"; establish and improve environmental management ledgers to ensure that data is true, accurate and traceable; strengthen employee training to improve the environmental awareness and operational skills of all employees.

IV. Core Values of Shouxin

As a pioneer in providing stable quality polyacrylamide brands globally, Shouxin will continue to leverage its professional technology to provide enterprises with consistently high-quality polyacrylamide products.

◆ Technology Research and Development: Shouxin's R&D team has worked closely with Academician Shen Yinchu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (Father of Polyacrylamide and Father of Biological Pesticides in China), Academician Phil S. Baran of the National Academy of Sciences (Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and Professor at the Scripps Research Institute), and university teams to develop more than 100 product models.

◆ Quality Assurance: Shouxin focuses on formula development with the goal of stable quality. From formula development, raw material control, process supervision, and dual supervision and testing of finished products entering and leaving the warehouse, it effectively ensures the stability of product quality.

◆ Service System: Shouxin provides comprehensive services from large-scale product selection and application guidance to effect evaluation. By accurately selecting products for customers, it helps enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency.

2025-2026 is a critical period for the intensive introduction and strict implementation of environmental protection policies, and also an important opportunity for enterprises to achieve green transformation.

Shouxin will continue to help enterprises meet environmental governance requirements, jointly promote China's ecological civilization construction, contribute to a beautiful China, and achieve sustainable development.