Waste Rags in Household Trash Trigger RMB 100,000 Fine for Wenzhou Printer

Raw material prices are surging, labor costs are high and environmental requirements are tightening; the printing industry is clearly facing severe operating pressure.

In Wenzhou, one printing plant paid a RMB 100,000 penalty after an employee mixed several machine-cleaning rags into household garbage—a costly lesson that peers across the industry should heed.

After receiving a high fine notice for improper hazardous-waste handling, the Wenzhou printing company was filled with regret, especially in light of the question: 'It was only a waste rag—why should that cost 100,000 yuan?'

Many people assume that putting used rags into a bin is proper disposal, and some may even consider a RMB 100,000 penalty too heavy. In fact, rags generated during printing are not ordinary waste; they are classified as hazardous waste and must not be disposed of together with ordinary domestic waste.

Recently, the Cangnan Branch of the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau investigated an environmental violation involving the mixed storage of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

In August this year, enforcement officers from the Cangnan Branch carried out an on-site inspection of a packaging Co., Ltd. The company was in production, with four gravure presses as its main production equipment; three were running during the inspection. Using BOPP film, ink and thinner as raw materials, it mainly engaged in printing and processing of packaging and decorative printed materials. Its production flow was BOPP film—printing—finished product, and the process generated hazardous wastes including waste ink drums (waste packaging drums) and waste rags (waste machine-cleaning rags).

During the inspection, officers found that the company stored waste rags (waste machine-cleaning rags) generated in production together with domestic waste in a trash bin inside the workshop. After sorting and weighing, the waste rags (waste machine-cleaning rags) totaled 6.6 kilograms. According to the company's Environmental Impact Report Form for Construction Projects and the National Catalogue of Hazardous Wastes (2021 Edition), the waste rags (waste machine-cleaning rags) belong to hazardous waste category HW49, Other Wastes, with waste code 900-041-49.

The Cangnan Branch of the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau then filed a case and investigated it.

By storing hazardous waste rags (waste machine-cleaning rags) mixed with non-hazardous waste (domestic waste) in a trash bin in the printing workshop, the company is suspected of violating Paragraph 2, Article 81 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste.

In September, the Cangnan Branch imposed an administrative penalty of exactly RMB 100,000 on the company under the relevant provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste.

—Reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378627.html