Beijing Starts Charging for VOC Emission

According to the Notification of Standards on the Charge for VOCs issued by Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau in September, Beijing starts charging for VOCs emissions from 5 major industries including 17 minor businesses from this month.

The following sectors will be affected:

Major Industry	Minor Business
Furniture making	Wooden furniture making
Packaging and printing	Books, newspapers and magazines print Packages print
Petro-chemical	Crude oil process and petroleum manufacture Organic chemical raw materials manufacture Coatings manufacture Ink manufacture Manufacture of plastics in primary forms and synthetic resin Synthetic rubber manufacture Manufacture of synthetic fiber Storage
Automobile manufacture	Automobile manufacture Modified automobile manufacture
Electronics	Manufacture of communication terminals Manufacture of integrated circuits Manufacture of photoelectronic devices Manufacture of printed board

A differential charge policy is adopted, based on the VOC emission control measures and effects of the enterprises. The charge is 40 RMB/kg for enterprises that have any of the following conditions:

Enterprises that don’t have exhaust gas treatment equipment
Enterprises whose exhaust gas treatment equipment malfunction
Enterprises that exceed the VOCs emission limits

The charge is 10 RMB/kg for enterprises that meet all the following conditions:

Enterprises that have gone through the VOC clean production assessment
Enterprises whose emission is below 50% of the emission limit
Enterprises that haven’t been punished due to environmental pollution in the particular month

For other enterprises, the normal charge is 20 RMB/kg. So in this differential charge system, enterprises that violate the emission regulations would pay up to 4 times of the price compared with the enterprises that have less emission. The highest charge level is designed to be more expensive than the average treatment cost of the VOCs. So the system would hopefully urge the industry to put in more effort into improving production lines and take the VOCs treatment more seriously.