Creating a Win-Win Road for Economic Benefits and Environmental Protection
In early summer, the author visited the production workshop of Ji Yuan Stone and observed workers busily engaged in their tasks. Inside the finished product room, a striking sight caught our attention—a mosaic of architectural decoration pieces made from stone corner scraps. The company’s representative proudly stated, "This building decoration material, crafted from ledger stone split face waste, is highly popular in European and American markets."
Yixian County is the largest production base for ledger stone split face in the country. However, alongside economic benefits, the industry also generates a significant amount of stone waste. In the past, these solid wastes were often discarded in fields, along roadsides, and near rivers, causing severe environmental damage.
Before the year 2000, slate enterprises in Yi County struggled to find storage solutions for these wastes, utilizing every possible space for disposal. The county's environmental protection department recognized that ledger stone split face processing was a typical case of low resource utilization and high emissions—a challenge within the traditional economy.
Faced with the conflict between economic benefits and environmental protection, the county sought a win-win solution. At a special meeting, Yixian authorities proposed the principle of "reasonable development and effective utilization" of slate resources. They encouraged stone processing enterprises to collaborate, innovate, and actively address the issue of accumulating stone processing waste.
