China to Develop Air Pollutant Emission Standards for Packaging Printing and Other Industries in 2014

With severe smog affecting daily life in the three northeastern provinces, Beijing activated its heavy-pollution emergency plan. Yet emergency measures alone can only treat symptoms; air pollution control must address the source. In 2014, China will develop air pollutant emission standards for packaging and printing and other industries.

The smog sweeping across China has been startling. In recent days, all provincial capitals in the three northeastern provinces were shrouded in haze. On the 21st, Harbin was caught off guard by the 'worst smog in history,' which fell on the same day the city officially began heating. Heating arrived, and so did the smog; severe haze pushed PM2.5 readings 'off the charts' in many areas.

Beijing released its heavy-pollution emergency plan yesterday afternoon. Under the plan, air pollution will be classified into four levels according to severity, activating blue, yellow, orange and red alerts. When the highest red alert is triggered, motor vehicles citywide will implement odd-even license plate restrictions as required; local government vehicles will, on top of the odd-even scheme, take an additional 30% of all official vehicles off the road.

On September 2, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau held a press conference titled 'Declaring War on PM2.5,' releasing the Breakdown of Key Tasks in the Beijing 2013-2017 Clean Air Action Plan and other recent air pollution control plans and targets. The plan stipulates that air pollutant emission standards for packaging and printing, wooden furniture manufacturing and automobile manufacturing will be developed in 2014, along with product volatile organic compound limit standards.

For VOC treatment projects in key industries, the main measures are: promote advanced coating process technologies in automobile manufacturing, packaging and printing, and furniture manufacturing, and optimize spray-painting processes and equipment; deepen organic waste gas treatment from coating, where solvent-based coating processes must be enclosed and equipped with organic waste gas collection, recovery and purification facilities, with the organic waste gas collection rate gradually reaching over 90% to ensure compliant emissions; and advance VOC treatment for other solvent-using processes. Starting from 2013, VOC emissions from key industries in each district and county will be reduced by about 10% annually; by 2017, cumulative emission reductions will reach about 50% compared with 2012.

Environmental impact assessment approval and energy conservation assessment will be further tightened, while new pollution emissions from the industrial sector will be reduced. The packaging and printing industry must use inks that meet environmental protection requirements. VOC emission standards, cleaner production evaluation indicators and environmental engineering technical specifications for relevant industries must be strictly implemented.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original article: http://news.pack.cn/show-361864.html