China: New regulation against e-waste

Recently, China has announced " Management measures to control pollution from electronic products ". Accordingly, electronic products produced after March 1 are forced to label whether or not toxic substances in the product .

This measure requires, electronic products manufactured after March 1, if there is no toxic substance in the product, put the green ' e ' sign; If the product has toxic substances, it must stick the orange warning sign on the product, and note the name and content of the poisonous element, the expiry date and the time of compulsory cancellation of the product. .

Currently, China only requires enterprises to " clearly show " 6 types of toxic substances in electronic products, but not yet have specific inspection and sanctioning regulations.

Electronic waste in China
(Artwork: BAN, VNN)

The introduction of " Management measures ." marked a new phase of management for controlling pollution from Chinese electronic products, shortening the gap with developed countries in the Energy saving and environmental protection from electronic products.

Electronic products are defined to include products manufactured by electronic information technology, computers, consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, MP3s, computers, printers, and batteries. .

China has now become the second largest consumer electronics market in the world after the US, and is also the world's largest producer of consumer electronics. Just take the example of mobile phones, according to NuoCheng Consulting Company, in 2006, China's mobile phone market broke out with the number of 100 million units, accounting for 1/10 of the total consumption. bridge.

But the accompanying boom in China's electronic information industry is a huge metaphor for environmental issues.

Experts have said that, among ordinary electronic products, there is a large amount of toxic metals such as lead, mercury, chromium 6 . A normal computer can have more than 300 types. chemicals that are harmful to the body, in which lead is the most serious chemical. The average lead content in a computer screen is more than 1kg, on PBC or welds of components and CPUs . there are also many lead.

If these heavy metals are not adequately treated, they will not only seriously pollute the land and atmosphere, but also affect the intellectual development of children.

For a long time, China has no ordinance for toxic substances in electronic products. Imported and consumed electronic products in the country are not bound by regulations on toxic content.

It was not until March 2007 that relevant agencies such as the Ministry of Information, Department of Environmental Protection . officially implemented this "Management measure ." .

The "management measure" introduced is considered as the EU ROSH Directive, because it is also the pressure on Chinese enterprises. In 2005, EU issued the "Directive on toxic substances banned from use in electrical and electronic devices" (referred to as ROSH directive) and officially took effect from July 1, 2006.

The aforementioned Directive states that the number of imported gas and electronic equipment in the EU must limit the use of toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium (Cd), Chromium VI, PBB, PBDE .

After the ROSH directive went into effect, some US $ 1 billion electronic products of Ningbo City (Zhejiang Province, China) were unable to export because of this " non-tariff barrier ".

From the experts' point of view, the birth of ' ROSH China ' will help businesses improve their overall competitiveness and promote global competition participation activities.

Electronic waste disposal in China
(Artwork: Greenchoice.cn, VNN)

In the last two years, some of China's advanced enterprises exporting electronic goods to developed areas such as the EU are restricted by the green environmental protection directives of those countries, so it is imperative to price and technology.

In terms of the State, in order to improve the overall for electronic enterprises, the Chinese Government must follow the steps of developed countries, supervise management and promote businesses to enhance environmental protection. school

For large enterprises with export products, the product's environmental protection features are relatively good, and for small and medium enterprises, their products such as MP3, DVD . are produced. with the most inexpensive and almost untreated ingredients, the toxic content is quite high.

If the new " Management Measures " follow, small and medium enterprises will have to reform, the entire electronics industry must be " cleaned " to a certain extent. Consumers will also pay more attention to green products, although the price of products will increase.

However, Chinese enterprises said that from a technological perspective, the use of substitutes to limit toxic substances in electronic products will increase production costs, plus testing fees. pushing the price up by at least 5%.

At the same time with the implementation of " Management Measures ", China will continue to gradually improve the monitoring procedures for environmental protection and energy efficiency of electronic products.

Tuyet Nhung