Tuesday, May 27, 2014
The central government and many local governments in the People’s Republic of China are initiating various plans and regulations to control volatile organic compounds (VOC) in China.

Regulations have been developing rapidly over the last two to three years due to public pressure against the rapidly deteriorating air quality.

ACA’s International Affairs Committee is monitoring these developments closely, and through the International Paint and Printing Ink Council, gathering information from fellow IPPIC member China National Coatings Industry Association (CNCIA) to keep its members apprised.

The following is a summary of developments regarding VOC initiatives coming out of China.

The central government is planning to set a VOC limit for solvent-containing products — a tax will be applied to coatings over this VOC limit. CNCIA is currently in a dialogue with the government trying to classify different products with different VOC limits, but there has been no final decision yet. A proposal is expected to be released by the end of 2014.

The Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning held a meeting in the last week of April in Beijing and discussed a plan for Integrated Management for Surface Coatings VOCs. This plan will cover coatings in seven industrial segments, namely: protective (infrastructure), automobile, shipbuilding, containers, furniture, OEM and electronics. VOC limits will be set for each industry. The academy is expected to have a complete and comprehensive plan for implementation by 2017 or 2018.

The Shanghai Environment Bureau is creating the Emission Standards for Paint, Ink and Allied Products Manufactures (DB31/xxx-2014) to control emissions from factories. This standard will be applied both for existing factories and new factories, with slightly different control criteria.

Together with the Chinese Ministry of Environment, universities, and some academic institutes, CNCIA is also investigating VOC emissions from coatings for automobiles, ship buildings, containers, furniture, industrial equipment, coil, bridges etc. The project will start this year and is expected to last three years. At that time, a full recommendation of VOC limits for each type of coatings will be made.