Chinese fund to support e-waste processing

China – Henceforth, producers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment in China will be required to pay into a fund to subsidise the cost of dealing with e-waste under a regulation jointly issued by China’€™s Ministry of Finance and five other departments. The ministry says the new fund is aimed at promoting comprehensive utilisation of resources as well as at encouraging energy saving and environmental protection.
Under the regulation, the collection and subsidy criteria vary depending on the equipment: for example, Yuan 13 (US$ 2.05) will be collected from producers for each TV set while a subsidy of Yuan 85 (US$ 13.35) will be offered for the responsible processing of each waste TV set.
At the end of 2011, Chinese citizens owned around 520 million TV sets, 300 million fridges, 330 million air-conditioners, 320 million washing machines and 300 million computers. Tens of millions of these items are disposed of annually, according to the Ministry of Finance.