Central China's Henan Province plans to shut down all small paper mills in the next three years in an effort to curb industrial pollution.

All the small paper mills that are to close must have their licenses canceled, machines dismantled, and supplies of water and electricity stopped, according to a provincial government order.

In the future, new paper mill projects, including upgrading and extensions, must have an annual capacity of at least 100,000 tons for those using wood pulp, 34,000 tons for straw pulp, and 300,000 tons for chemical wood pulp.

The province will encourage wood pulp paper mills and ban the building of any new straw pulp paper mills.

Henan has some 1,100 paper mills, with a total annual capacity of 5.38 million tons.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2002)