Scope

In China, the control of hazardous substances and end-of-life treatment for electrical and electronic products is governed by a set of regulations often collectively referred to as China RoHS and China’s waste electrical and electronic product regulations. These are aimed at manufacturers, importers and distributors of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and have two main objectives:

• To ensure proper recycling and treatment of products at end of life through regulations on the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products, which place responsibilities on manufacturers and other market actors for collection and environmentally sound processing.

• To eliminate or strictly limit the use of environmentally sensitive substances in electrical and electronic products. This is implemented through the “Administrative Measures for the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products” (“China RoHS 2”) and the associated standard GB/T 26572, which define restricted substances and their concentration limits.

Under China RoHS, the main objective is to control the use of four metals and two categories of brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic products: lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (Cr⁶⁺), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). For these substances, the maximum concentration values by weight in homogeneous materials are generally 0.1% (1000 ppm), with 0.01% (100 ppm) for cadmium, subject to any applicable exemptions specified in Chinese legislation and standards.