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China’s Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) is proposing a mandatory national standard (GB) to lay down energy-saving and environmental protection specifications for household and similar electrical appliances. The draft GB has been notified to WTO on February 12, 2024 for 60 days consultation. It is proposed to enter into force 36 months after approval.
As per the GB, household electrical appliances refer to electrical appliances used by non-professionals in homes, apartments and similar places (such as shops, light industry and farms, etc.), the rated voltage of single-phase AC-powered appliances does not exceed 250 V, and the rated voltage of other appliances does not exceed 480 V. Other appliances also include DC-powered or battery-operated appliances.
As a general principle, the draft GB promotes a product designing solution that is conducive to minimizing the environmental impact and resource consumption. The packaging design shall be as simple as possible to reduce the generation of packaging waste. In addition, manufacturers are encouraged to use reusable, recyclable, degradable as packaging materials for their products.
Specifically, the draft GB restricts the use of several environmentally hazardous chemicals during the manufacturing stage as follows:
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons,1,1,1-trichloroethane(methylchloroform TCA), trifluorotrichloroethane (CFC-113), and carbon tetrachloride (CTC) should not be used as a cleaning agent in the manufacturing of electrical appliances. The content of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and specific VOCs in cleaning agents should comply with the limit requirements of GB 38508.
Five types of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including hexachlorobutadiene, polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN), pentachlorophenol (PCP) and its salts and esters, decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) and short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCP), should not be used in the manufacturing of household electrical appliances.
The manufacturers are also obliged to comply with mandatory energy efficient and water efficient standards for household electrical appliances listed in Annex A and calculate recyclability rate using methodologies specified in Annex B.
The notified draft GB can be accessed here.
