China issues 2024 version of general rules for solid waste digital management 
On July 5, 2024, the Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, a branch of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, published a 2024 version of the general rules for solid waste digital management. This is a revision of the rules published in 2021 (for details, see the corresponding related article at the bottom of this article).
The 2024 version of the general rules came into effect July 1, 2024. The revision introduces standards for the development of solid waste digital management systems by companies and provisions on smart oversight.
Scope of the rules
The general rules are applied in the supervision of the planning and designing of solid waste digital management systems by the state, local governments and companies.
Standards for the development of solid waste digital management systems by companies
The new version of the general rules introduces a section titled “Standards for the Development of Solid Waste Digital Management Systems by Companies and Third Parties” (Section 5.3). Waste-generating companies have to develop a hazardous waste digital management system for themselves or use a system provided by a third party to keep records on hazardous solid waste, report to the government bodies overseeing them, and retain relevant data for at least five years in principle.
Smart oversight
The new version of the general rules introduces a chapter titled “Smart Oversight Guidelines” (Chapter 6). This chapter states that hazardous waste digital management should be implemented using electronic labels and electronic manifests in accordance with the mandatory national standard called the Standard for Pollution Control on Hazardous Waste Storage (GB 18597-2023; for details, see the corresponding related article at the bottom), and that two-dimensional barcodes for hazardous waste labels should be created and used to manage hazardous waste in accordance with the ecology and environment standard called the Technical Specification for Setting Identification Signs of Hazardous Waste (HJ 1276-2022; for details, see the corresponding related article at the bottom).
The 2024 version of the general rules (in Chinese) are available at
https://www.meescc.cn/zhxx/tzgg/202407/t20240705_1080942.shtml
