Efforts to save energy and control emissions have highlighted recent technological reforms in China.
One example is the recently New World Eco-Industrial Park in Qingdao in eastern Shandong province. It is the nation's first centre for treating used electrical appliances.
Every component of an appliance can be reused at the industrial park. Integrated circuits have been used to extract precious metals in the past, but now they undergo specific identification to be better used. Reusing components of a used TV set can even net a profit of about 500 yuan, or 67 US dollars.
Xie Wenguo works at the Qingdao New World Eco-Industrial Park.
"We make full utilization of these waste components through disposal, and ensure that totally useless ones will be safely disposed of."
In 2012, the centre should be able to treat as many as 600,000 used appliances in a year. All waste appliances in Shandong province could be reused.
In drought-prone Ningxia, the Huadian Ningxia Lingwu Power Plant has invested money in reconstructing water facilities while also cutting water consumption by one third. The processes save about 14 million cubic metres of water used in power generation.
Bo Qiming is from the power plant.
"Our factory has invested four million US dollars to reconstruct the irrigation canal. Though the production costs have increased, we have solved a vital problem for our enterprise by performing sustainable development."
In other provinces like Liaoning, outdated and coal-fired power generators have been pulled down. Efforts have also been made to save energy and control emissions in provinces such as Shanxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Hebei.