China releases recommended national standards for evaluation of energy conservation, pollution reduction in remanufacturing 
On March 9, 2022, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation and Standardization Administration jointly issued recommended national standards “Remanufacturing—Evaluation Indexes and Calculation Methods of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction” (GB/T 41350-2022), which will come into effect on Oct. 1, 2022.
The standards define indicators and calculation methods for the evaluation of energy conservation and pollutant discharge reduction in product remanufacturing for standardized development of China’s remanufacturing industry.
Scope
The standards apply to machinery and electrical and electronic equipment remanufactured in China.
General rules (only part of them are shown here)
- Remanufacturing companies are either the manufacturers of the products to be remanufactured or independent (third-party) manufacturers that don’t produce the products.
- When independent remanufacturers calculate the indicators used for the evaluation of remanufactured products, they make necessary estimates based on the data of the original products’ production processes and provide a description of how they made the estimates.
- When the indicators of energy conservation and pollutant discharge reduction are calculated for remanufacturing, calculations concerning remanufactured things should take into account the entire remanufacturing process, and calculations concerning original, non-remanufactured products should take into account the entire production process of the original products.
Evaluation indicators
There are three categories (“Class I indicators”) in the evaluation system of energy conservation and pollutant discharge reduction in remanufacturing, namely energy and resource conservation, pollutant discharge reduction and remanufacturing implementation. Each of these categories has specific indicators (“Class II indicators”) as shown in the table below.
| Class I indicator (category) | Class II indicator |
| Energy and resource conservation | Energy conservation rate |
| Resource conservation rate | |
| Water conservation rate | |
| Pollutant discharge reduction | Greenhouse gas emissions reduction rate |
| Air pollutant emissions reduction rate | |
| Effluent reduction rate | |
| Solid waste generation reduction rate | |
| Remanufacturing implementation | Recycled parts use rate |
| Non-destructive dismantling rate | |
| Washable parts rate | |
| Remanufacturing rate | |
| Discarded parts harm elimination rate | |
| Replaced parts rate | |
| Recycling rate of parts that cannot be remanufactured |
Calculation methods
Calculation methods are specified for the indicators listed in the table above. For example, the water conservation rate (SW) is found as follows:
SW = (1 − CWR/CWM)×100%
where CWR is the water consumption (m3) required to remanufacture a given quantity of a product, and CWM is the water consumption (m3) required to produce a given quantity of the original product.
The full text of the standards (in Chinese) is available at
http://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/gb/newGbInfo?hcno=F52ED916D17A084D36EF9D3B47FFEE7C
