Chinese version of WEEE announced: costs for electrical appliance manufacturers have increased by 5%
Nearly three years after the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) was fully implemented, China announced China WEEE.
On March 5, 2009, the General Office of the State Council of China officially issued State Council Order No. 551, formally promulgating the "Regulations on the Management of Recycling and Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment" that was reviewed and approved on August 20 last year. At this time, nearly five years have passed since the National Development and Reform Commission formulated the draft for comments.
The just-promulgated Chinese version of WEEE can be traced back to 2004. After the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive officially came into effect in 2003, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Regulations on the Recycling and Treatment of Waste Home Appliances and Electronic Products" for comments as early as September 2004. Since then, many countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, and some states in the United States, have also begun to step up the formulation of relevant laws. For example, Japan promulgated the "Household Appliances Recycling Act" and the "JEITA/JEMA Product Recycling Initiative" in 2006, South Korea promulgated the "Electronic Electrical Equipment and Vehicle Recycling Act" at the end of 2007, and California in the United States promulgated the "California Electronic Waste Recycling Act."
The Chinese version of WEEE encountered setbacks in the process of soliciting opinions. A relevant person from Skyworth Group told reporters: "We saw this solicitation draft at the end of 2004, but it stipulated that the recycling costs of waste electronic products should mainly be borne by the manufacturers. , this cost accounts for about 10% of the product cost, which is unbearable for manufacturing companies.”
Statistics obtained by the reporter from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that since 2004, the overall profit rate of China's electronic information industry has been below 5% and has been decreasing year by year. Among them, the interest rate of home appliance companies is only 2%-3%.
Under such circumstances, in order to cope with environmental protection laws such as WEEE and RoHS from the European Union, Japan, and the United States, Chinese electronics manufacturing companies have focused more on the adjustment of export products.
Konka Overseas Business Department spokesperson He Xiaohua told reporters, "European WEEE recycling responsibilities for used home appliances are shared by producers, importers and distributors. Most of China's products are OEMs, so Chinese companies bear relatively small responsibilities, and the EU The specific implementation time of each country is also the same. For example, the UK did not start implementation until 2007, which also gives Chinese companies a lot of room to respond. "
He also told reporters, “It is much easier for Chinese companies to deal with the EU’s RoHS directive. As long as they adopt new technologies such as lead-free soldering, they can avoid most of their responsibilities, and the cost increase will not be large. These new technologies can also be used very quickly. It is applied to electronic products sold in the domestic market, so the Chinese version of RoHS was successfully promulgated.”
In March 2007, China's "Measures for the Control and Management of Pollution from Electronic Information Products" in response to the EU RoHS directive was officially implemented.
However, with the peak of scrapping of electrical and electronic products in China, China scraps an average of 4 million refrigerators, 5 million TV sets, and 6 million washing machines every year. In addition, nearly 5 million computers enter the phase-out period. The original scattered waste electrical appliances The recycling and treatment system is already overwhelmed, and the Chinese version of WEEE has to be announced.
The Chinese version of WEEE was revised by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2007 and then submitted to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council for approval. This time after more than a year of discussion and revision, the regulations were finally approved in August 2008. However, this regulation provides many protections for manufacturers. Measures, and the advent of the financial crisis also delayed the official implementation of the regulations to New Year's Day in 2011.
The Chinese version of WEEE has adopted preferential policies for producers after soliciting opinions and making revisions many times, but its "producer responsibility system" has been retained. The regulations stipulate that the state establishes a waste electrical and electronic product processing fund to subsidize the recycling and processing costs of waste electrical and electronic products, which will be included in national and local fiscal budget management. "Producers of electrical and electronic products, consignees of imported electrical and electronic products or their agents shall fulfill their obligations to pay the waste electrical and electronic product disposal fund in accordance with regulations."
This regulation, which requires manufacturers and importers to fully bear the recycling costs of used electrical appliances, may increase the costs of electrical appliance manufacturers. 5%-10%. In the context of the global financial crisis, the delayed implementation of the Chinese version of WEEE seems to be very necessary for the domestic electronic information industry whose profit margin is originally less than 5%.
– Reference source: China Sina 2009-03-09
