On November 27th, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and four other departments jointly published the National Inventory of Hazardous Waste (2021 version) [1], following two public consultations held in 2019.
The existing version of the Inventory was published in March 2016 and came into effect on August 1st the same year. Major changes compared to the 2016 version lie in both text and entries.
The text content has changed from 9 articles into 8 articles. Articles 3 and 4 in the 2016 version were deleted, and a new article which states that the Inventory will be dynamically adjusted in line with realities is added.
Adjustments are also seen in specific entries. For instance, “wastes which are collected and disposed for the purpose of preventing and treating infectious diseases of animals” (900-001-01) is deleted from the category of HW01, and the hazard properties of “chemical wastes” in the category of HW01 are changed from “T” to “T/C/I/R” (T for Toxicity, C for Corrosivity, I for Ignitability and R for Reactivity).
The exemption list is updated as well, expanding from 16 entries to 32 entries. The exemption management was first introduced in the 2016 version, with an aim to grant exemption to certain hazardous wastes while keeping environmental risks under control. With changes made in this version, more hazardous wastes with relatively small environmental risks are included in exemption management.
