China New Inventory of Hazardous Waste: Are Your Chemicals Hazardous Wastes?

Three months after China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) released the last version of draft Inventory of Hazardous Wastes on March 30^th, the final version was published by MEP along with National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). The inventory will take effect on Aug 1^st 2016.

ChemLinked reported some of the major differences when the draft was released. However, the entire text wasn’t released, so not all the changes were known. With the release of the complete document, ChemLinked summarized 5 major changes to the previous regulation.

1. The preface was amended in 3 aspects:

1. The new Inventory makes sure that the medical wastes fall under the management scope of the Inventory.

2. The determination criteria of the mixture of hazardous wastes and other solid wastes are amended.

3. An explanation to the exemption of hazardous wastes is added.

2. The codes and categories of hazardous wastes are adjusted. The previous inventory which was published in 2008 defined 400 codes of hazardous wastes, classified into 49 categories. In the new Inventory, 479 codes are included, 362 of which come from the 2008 version and 117 are newly added. However, the categories are reduced to 46. Categories HW06, HW41 and HW42 are combined as HW06 (waste organic solvents). The former HW43 and HW44 are deleted. A new category HW50 (waste catalysts) is added. 

3. An exemption list is added to the inventory. In order to concentrate the limited law enforcement resources more efficiently on hazardous wastes with higher priorities, some lower risk hazardous wastes are exempted during certain stages of their lifecycle where the risks are relatively acceptable, such as transportation, collection, etc. 16 hazardous wastes are included in the exemption list. 7 of them are directly exempted in relative national standards. For example, if the incineration ash meets certain criteria in GB16889-2008, then it can be treated in normal landfills. Some activities of the other 9 hazardous wastes are specified in the new Inventory. For example, leaded glass of cathode-ray tubes are exempted during transportation if the vehicles are rain-proof and leak proof.

4. The “*” remarks in 2008 version are removed from the new Inventory. There were 33 hazardous wastes in 2008 version which had a  “*” remark. In certain circumstances, they might not be hazardous. If the enterprise had sufficient proof, then these wastes were allowed to be exempted from the hazardous wastes management. This caused a lot of confusion and controversies during the law enforcement and many enterprises bypassed their responsibilities using this rule, so it is abolished to enhance the management and reduce the potential risks from the hazardous wastes.

5. The management scope is expanded and the whole Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals published by the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) is adopted. The 2008 version only included toxic chemicals for priority management, while the new Inventory contains chemicals with all other hazardous properties, such as flammability and explosiveness.

The management scope of the new Inventory is hugely expanded, but the management emphasis placed on certain hazardous wastes is reduced. In addition, at least 4 lists or inventories of substances are included with the new Inventory. Enterprises may find it hard to determine whether their chemicals or wastes should follow the requirements in the Inventory. ChemLinked sums up 5 things that enterprises should check to have a clear idea how their wastes are classified and what compliance work they should do.

1. Is the waste listed in the Inventory of Hazardous Wastes?

The Inventory contains 479 hazardous waste codes with 5 hazardous properties, which are Corrosivity (C), Toxicity (T), Ignitability (I), Reactivity (R) and Infectivity(In). Enterprises could check their waste’s origin and hazardous property to find out whether it is a hazardous waste.

An example of the Inventory is as follow:

2. Is the waste classified as medical waste?

Medical wastes are included into the scope of hazardous wastes for the first time. They are classified into 5 categories in the Categorization of Medical Wastes, which are infective wastes, biological medical wastes, cutting wastes, medicine wastes and chemical wastes. If a waste is a medical waste, then it is a hazardous waste.

3. Is the waste listed in the China Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals (2015)?

The Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals (2015) is the biggest expansion of the new hazardous waste inventory, not only in quantity (2828 hazardous chemicals), but also in hazardous properties (28 hazardous properties such as carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, etc. compared with the only 5 hazardous properties in the Inventory of Hazardous Wastes itself).

4. Is the waste a mixture of hazardous waste and other solid waste?

1. If the hazardous waste is classified as either toxic (T) or infective (In) or both, then the mixture is defined as hazardous waste.

2. If the hazardous waste has only one of the other 3 hazardous properties, which are corrosivity (C), Ignitability (I) and Reactivity (R), then the mixture should be tested by methods specified in relative national standards to determine whether it is a hazardous waste.

3. If the hazardous properties of the solid waste are ambiguous, it should be tested and determined by relative national standards.

4. If the hazardous waste is mixed with radioactive waste, then the mixture is defined as radioactive waste.

5. There are 6 major national standards regarding the test methods and determination of hazardous wastes:

         i. GB 5085.1 – 2007: Determination of corrosivity

         ii. GB 5085.2 – 2007: Preliminary screening of acute toxicity

         iii. GB 5085.3 – 2007: Determination of leaching toxicity

         iv. GB 5085.4 – 2007: Determination of Ignitability

         v. GB 5085.5 – 2007: Determination of Reactivity

         vi. GB 5085.6 – 2007: Determination of the concentration of toxic substances

5. Is the waste listed in the List of Exempted Management of Hazardous Wastes?

It should be noted that although 16 hazardous wastes are listed in the exempted list, they are not exempted from their identity as hazardous waste. Only in certain stages of their lifecycle are they exempted from certain management requirements of hazardous wastes. In other stages, they are not exempted. In the exempted stages, other management requirements that are not specified in the exempted list are not exempted.

The 2008 version of Inventory of Hazardous Wastes has served for 8 years. In order to avoid too much impact on the industry, the main framework of the 2008 version is adopted by the new Inventory. However, there are still remarkable amendments in the new version. The management scope is expanded due to the inclusion of some other inventories and lists. On the other hand, the authority gives up management on certain stages of the lifecycle of some hazardous wastes. They are all new attempts to explore the best way to regulate the hazardous wastes and reduce their risks to human beings and the environment. The government will pay close attention to the result of the implementation of the Inventory and start new rounds of amendments when necessary.