China marks 1800 gadgets for eco labels

In China, more than 1800 newly-produced electronic information products have to be marked with pollution control symbols before entering the market.

This comes under China’s new regulation Administrative Measure on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products, which has been brought into effect since this March.“Electronic Information Products” includes telephones, fax machines, microwave ovens, cell phones and other 1800 types of electronic products, the regulation states.

Orange stands for hazardous substances, and the number inside the circle represents the environment-friendly use period.

Green means this is an environment-friendly electronic-information product.

Pictures from Ministry of Information Industry in China.

This regulation is called “the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment”, or RoH’s. It aims to prevent pollution from wasted electronic products, and also reduce the impact the European Union RoHS Directive has on the China’s domestic electronic industry.

The EU’s RoHS Directive came into force on 1 July 2006. This Directive bans selling on the EU market new electrical equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants, according toRoHS’s official website.