BEIJING - About 30 percent of plastic scrap have been recycled in China, up from 20 percent in 2010, said the China Scrap Plastics Association.

Last year, China recycled about 28 million tonnes of plastic scrap that it produced, Saturday's People's Daily quoted the association as saying.

From 2006 to 2010, only about 46 million tonnes of plastic scrap were recycled, according to the association.

China is one of the world's biggest plastic producer and consumption market. It needs about 80 million tonnes of plastic a year, which means the demand of 240 million tonnes of crude oil.

Recycling plastic scrap is considered an effective way to reduce the use of crude oil.

To recycle one tonne of scrap plastics means to save six tonnes of oil supply, the newspaper report said.

Plus about 8 million tonnes of scrap plastic imported from aboard, the country's recycling business has saved about 216 million tonnes of oil supply last year, it added.

Despite notable profits and benefits in sustainable development, the plastic recycling industry stirs concerns for air and water pollution. Low-level recycling, such as simple burning, might emit toxic substance.

So far the country has about 3,000 recycling businesses of different sizes and capacities.

Some are big companies with good technologies but the rest are small workshops whose operation causes environment concerns, admitted Du Huanzheng, chairman of the association, in an earlier interview with Xinhua.

The industry should raise the benchmark of technical and environmental management and impose stricter self-discipline, he said.

The association is working on an industrial regulation on qualifications of a recycling business and will issue it next year, Du said.