From Industry News
China studies standards for e-scrap
The China
Communications Standards Association (Beijing) has established a taskforce
to study standards for recycling e-scrap and for testing consumer electronics
for harmful chemicals. The move is in response to the European Union's Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) Directives.
The Chinese standard for testing for harmful chemicals — said to be close to EU RoHS standards — will be mandatory and will ultimately require all electronics made in China to be tested, according to local reports.
China's manufacturing sector hopes that any certification process will open up the parts of the European consumer electronics market that had previously been closed, due to the lack of testing since the standards came into effect on July 1, 2006. Local reports have said that China's Guangdong Province alone loses several million dollars each year due to the WEEE and RoHS Directives.