China's Education Ministry said on Monday that starting this spring, a system of recycling textbooks will be established in rural primary and secondary schools. This way, some textbooks will be given to students by the schools for free at the start of a term and be returned at the end of the school term to be used by other students. While this regulation is largely welcomed by the public, people are also concerned with the efficient implementation of the rule.

Shandong based Dazhong Daily said that three things should be done to make the regulation work. First, we must cut the profit chain between publishers and education bodies. The idea of recycling textbooks was raised several years ago, but for a long time the system had not been adopted, with the major hindrance being the economic interests between publishers and education bodies.

Second, the paper said, people are also concerned with the hygiene of the recycled textbooks. Despite the benefits of recycling, some parents and students have kept questioning the hygiene problem, saying that the textbooks should not become a source to spread diseases.

Thirdly, we should also work out some supporting measures to deal with problems in the recycling process, such as students damaging the books. Textbook recycling is a complicated process, not a simple matter of collection and reuse.