With Chinese New Year just around the corner, people are once again trooping to the market to buy firecrackers for the annual festivity, and the Beijing market will be awash with assorted firecracker items from Saturday.
However, vendors are worried about a possible decline in sales because of recent concern over the worsening air pollution in the city.
To address the problem, and to let people enjoy the New Year tradition of setting off fireworks without causing further aggravation to the environment, firecracker companies have come up with new environment-friendly items.
"This year, we introduced fireworks containing zero sulfur. They not only give off less smoke but also don't produce massive paper scraps," said Wei Bo from the Marketing Department of Panda Fireworks Company in Beijing.
Wei said the new fireworks will cost three percent higher than regular ones due to the new techniques and materials used to produce them.
Wei said his company was being mindful of a policy enacted last year which forbids people from setting off firecrackers when air pollution is serious, hence their venture into environment-friendly firecrackers. The policy also bans the transport of fireworks when pollution density is high.
"Many retailers or distributors are pretty cautious about their stocks. This year, their inventories have decreased by 8 to 10 percent compared to last year," Wei said.