China, Regulations on Waste Electrical and Electronic Products

On February 25, 2009, the State Council of China issued the Regulation on the Management of Collection and Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products (the China WEEE regulation), which systematizes the disposal of waste electrical and electronic products. It came into effect on January 1, 2011. The regulation states that the state will implement a licensing system for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic products. It also stipulates that the state set up the Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Disposal Fund to use for the collection and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products. Producers of electrical and electronic products and consignees or their agents of imported electrical and electronic products are required to pay into the fund according to the regulation.

In line with the implementation of the China WEEE regulation, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the first Catalogue of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products for the Disposal Regulations — the list of products governed by the China WEEE regulation — on September 8, 2010. A revised version of this catalogue (2014 Edition) was released on February 9, 2015 to add nine new categories of products, including mobile communication devices and photocopiers, to the five existing categories in the first version.

The Management Measures on the Collection and Use of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Product Disposal Fund was issued on May 30, 2012 for the purpose of standardized use and management of the fund set out in the China WEEE regulation. China’s State Taxation Administration started collecting funds from producers, etc. of the products listed in the Catalogue of Waste Electric and Electronic Products for the Disposal Regulations on July 30, 2012.

 

Related rules

Name Main points
Regulation on the Management of Collection and Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Producers and importers are responsible for such things as adopting effective product designs for comprehensive resource utilization and detoxification treatment, and disclosing information about toxic and hazardous substances.

A fund will be established to receive payments from manufacturers, importers, etc. of electrical and electronic products to cover part of the cost for the disposal of the products.

Violators are punished with a fine of 50,000 yuan (about 800,000 yen) to 500,000 yuan (about 8,000,000 yen).
Management Measures on the Collection and Use of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Product Disposal Fund Producers of electrical and electronic products as well as consignees or their agents of imported electrical and electronic products are required to pay into the fund in accordance with the measures.

The fund is used for the following purposes:

  1. Collection and Disposal of waste electrical and electronic products.
  2. Development of the collection and disposal system for waste electrical and electronic products, as well as the management system for production and sales information of electrical and electronic products, including the collection and publication of relevant information.
  3. Collection and management of the fund.
  4. Other things related to collection or disposal of waste electrical and electronic products  approved by the Ministry of Finance of China.
Catalogue of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products for the Disposal Regulations (2014 Edition) Fourteen categories of products are listed on the catalogue:
(1) Refrigerators (2) Air conditioners (3) Range hoods (4) Washing machines (5) Electric water heaters (6) Gas water heaters (7) Printers (8) Photocopiers (9) Faxes (10) Televisions (11) Monitors (12) Computers (13) Mobile communication devices (14) Telephones