ALTHOUGH A LAW ON THE PREVENTION and control of solid waste pollution has been in place for 22 years, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, found that some local governments have no idea of the existence of such a law and bids to make people sort their garbage have repeatedly failed. Beijing News comments:

We all want to live in a cleaner environment, yet we all produce and discard large amounts of solid waste every day.

It is a big surprise that some local officials are ignorant of such an important environmental protection law. If the law had been strictly enforced, many environmental crises resulting from the casual dumping of hazardous solid waste could have been avoided.

The legislature and judicial departments should ensure everyone becomes more familiar with the law. They should emphasize that it is the legal duty of local officials to not only manage and control hazardous and general industrial solid waste, but also the solid waste produced by people in their everyday lives.

The local governments and law-enforcement agencies, especially at the county-level, must work together to strengthen their supervision and monitoring work as the law requires. The solid waste produced not only by industries but also people in their daily lives poses great threats to public health and the environment.

The officials and the law enforcers should be held accountable according to the law if any dereliction of duty leads to environmental pollution by solid waste.

The country's leaders have vowed to unswervingly advance law-based governance and build a beautiful China. If local officials do not know the laws how can law-based governance be anything but a slogan.