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China is the world's manufacturing power. The generation of an increasing number of hazardous waste as well as the improper disposal has caused a series of environmental pollution incidents and seriously affected the health of residents. Identification of hazardous waste is therefore crucial to the follow-up management, utilization, disposal and treatment.
On November 12th, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) published a draft Notice on Strengthening the Identification of Hazardous Waste[1], as part of the moves to facilitate the implementation of the revised Law of the People’s Republic China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste [2] and standardize the operation of units for identification of hazardous waste.
Units that produce solid waste can identify hazardous waste on their own, or entrust a third party to carry out the identification of hazardous waste. The identification of hazardous waste entails abundant expertise. The units for identification shall be qualified according to the Management Requirements for Hazardous Waste Identification Units (Annex of the notice) and fill in relevant information on the online platform to be eligible for serving identification of hazardous waste.
The identification shall be conducted referring to the Identification Standards for Hazardous Waste (GB 5085.1~7[3]) as well as the Technical Specifications on Identification for Hazardous Waste (HJ 298-2019[4]). The identification report shall be disclosed on the platform. If no dissenting opinions are raised in 10 working days, the identification conclusions can be adopted as a basis for the completion acceptance of construction projects, application for discharge permit, etc.
Which solid waste is required to conduct hazardous waste identification?
(1) Solid waste produced from production processes and daily lives, which might have hazards, i.e. toxic, corrosive, inflammable, or reactive or infectious properties;
(2) Solid waste deemed necessary according to the environmental impact assessment, or those mis-assessed or having doubts on the hazards;
(3) Solid waste deemed necessary by the departments of ecology and environment in their daily supervision, and there is evidence that the solid waste may have hazards; or
(4) Solid waste that may have hazards, involved in environmental emergencies and leftovers from history that cannot be traced back to the responsible subject.
The MEE will set up a National Expert Committee for Hazardous Waste Identification and the local authorities will have their provincial committee conduct spot checks on units and their reports. The information will be disclosed on the platform if it is found that the declared information is not true, the identification procedures are not standardized, the identification conclusions are incorrect, etc.
