Chinese Join EU in RoHS Directive
Electronic equipment sold in China this spring will carry one of two labels, a green tag to denote an environmentally friendly choice, or an orange tag for those who have not taken steps to eliminate hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium and hexad chromium.
The Chinese regulations are more vague and much less strict than the EU rules, but appear to be an important first step in helping clean up electronic equipment production in China and boost the availability of environmentally friendly choices to a growing Chinese consumer population.
The new rules, issued by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and six other authorities last February, require domestic manufacturers to specify the names and content of poisonous and harmful materials used in product design and manufacture.
Products containing hazardous substances, including lead, mercury, cadmium and hexad chromium will be registered in a list, and manufacturers will be required to gradually replace or reduce the content of these substances.
Products that do not meet national or industrial standards should not be sold on the domestic market, the regulations said.
However, no timetable has yet been established, said MII official Yang Meng.
Violations of the regulations will be punished but no specific measures are mentioned.
This measure, if enforced, is an important move for China, who is the world’s dumping ground for obsolete computer equipment: (see Greenpeace)
Perhaps the U.S. could take a page out of this play book.
Steve Balogh was thinking green at 9:42 PM on March 1, 2007
Comments are sorta kinda broken right now. We're working on it but to save energy can only work in daytime when solar system is at peak performance.
