Chinese version of WEEE announced: costs for electrical appliance manufacturers have increased by 5%
Nearly three years after the full implementation of the EU's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), China has released China WEEE.
On March 5, 2009, the General Office of the State Council of China officially issued Decree No. 551, formally promulgating the "Regulations on the Management of Recycling and Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment," which had been reviewed and approved on August 20 of the previous year. This came nearly five years after the National Development and Reform Commission drafted the regulations for public comment.
The recently promulgated Chinese version of WEEE can be traced back to 2004. Following the EU's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) coming into effect in 2003, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a draft of the "Regulations on the Management of Recycling and Disposal of Waste Household Appliances and Electronic Products" for public comment as early as September 2004. Subsequently, many countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, and some US states, also began to accelerate the formulation of relevant laws. For example, Japan promulgated the Household Appliance Recycling Law and the JEITA/JEMA Product Recycling Proposal in 2006; South Korea promulgated the Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicle Recycling Act at the end of 2007; and California enacted the California Electronic Waste Recycling Act.
The Chinese version of WEEE encountered setbacks during the consultation process. A Skyworth Group representative told reporters, "We saw the draft for comments at the end of 2004, but it stipulated that the recycling costs of waste electronic products should be borne mainly by the manufacturers, and the cost accounted for about 10% of the product cost, which was difficult for manufacturers to bear."
According to statistics obtained by reporters from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, since 2004, the overall profit margin of China's electronic information industry has been below 5% and has been declining year by year, with the profit margin of home appliance companies being only 2%-3%.
In this context, in order to cope with environmental regulations such as WEEE and RoHS from the EU, Japan, and the US, Chinese electronics manufacturers have focused more on adjusting their export products.
He Xiaohua, spokesperson for Konka's overseas business division, told reporters, "The EU's WEEE mandates that producers, importers, and distributors share responsibility for recycling used home appliances. Most Chinese products are OEM, so Chinese companies bear relatively little responsibility. Moreover, the implementation timelines vary across EU countries; for example, the UK did not begin implementation until 2007, which gives Chinese companies a lot of room to maneuver."
He also told reporters, "It is much easier for Chinese companies to deal with the EU's RoHS directive. They can avoid most of the responsibility by adopting new technologies such as lead-free soldering, and the cost increase is not significant. These new technologies can also be quickly applied to electronic products sold in the domestic market. Therefore, the Chinese version of RoHS was successfully promulgated."
In March 2007, China's "Administrative Measures for Pollution Control of Electronic Information Products," which was designed to comply with the EU RoHS Directive, officially came into effect.
However, with the arrival of the peak season for the scrapping of electrical and electronic products in China, an average of 4 million refrigerators, 5 million televisions, and 6 million washing machines are scrapped every year. In addition, nearly 5 million computers are entering their obsolescence period. The previously scattered waste electrical and electronic product recycling and processing system is already overburdened, and the Chinese version of WEEE has reached the point where it must be announced.
The Chinese version of WEEE was revised by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2007 and submitted to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council for approval again. After more than a year of discussion and revision, the regulations were finally approved in August 2008. However, the regulations provided many protections for manufacturers, and the financial crisis delayed the official implementation of the regulations until New Year's Day 2011.
After multiple rounds of consultation and revisions, the Chinese version of WEEE adopted preferential policies for producers, while retaining its "producer responsibility system." The regulations stipulate that the state will establish a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) disposal fund to subsidize the costs of recycling and disposing of WEEE, which will be included in the national and local government budgets. "Producers of electrical and electronic products, consignees of imported electrical and electronic products, or their agents shall fulfill their obligations to pay into the WEEE disposal fund in accordance with regulations.
This regulation, which requires manufacturers and importers to bear the full cost of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling, could increase the costs for appliance manufacturers by 5%-10%. Given the global financial crisis, the delayed implementation of the Chinese version of WEEE appears essential for the domestic electronics and information industry, where profit margins are already less than 5%.
– Reference source: Sina.com, March 9, 2009
