China publishes draft 2024 list of waste materials that are not regulated as hazardous waste

On Sept. 23, 2024, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment published a draft 2024 edition of the list of waste materials that are not regulated as hazardous waste, as part of the country’s effort to rigorously enforce the Environmental Protection Law, Solid Waste Environmental Pollution Prevention and Control Law and other laws and regulations, optimize China’s hazardous waste identification system, and promote the grade- and category-based management of hazardous waste. Comments on the draft were accepted through Oct. 13, 2024.

Solid waste materials on the list would not be treated as hazardous waste, and would be managed according to non-hazardous waste regulations. The draft list contains 12 types of solid waste, including sludge from drinking, waste from plastic pelletizing, filter residues and sludge from acrylic emulsion production, and waste of ion exchange resins.

Solid waste materials on the draft list

Waste of water-based drilling mud and drilling cuttings

• Industry: Oil and natural gas extraction
• Description: Waste of water-based drilling mud and drilling cuttings from oil and natural gas extraction

Deinking sludge

• Industry: Pulp
• Description: Sludge from the flotation deinking process in waste paper pulping

Waste from plastic pelletizing in the production of seven types of plastics

• Industry: Synthetic materials
• Description: Rejects and waste materials from the production of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)

Top and bottom dross in hot-dip galvanizing

• Industry: Metal surface treatment and heat treatment
• Description: Dross formed in hot-dip galvanizing (using no lead)

Waste water treatment sludge in capacitor aluminum foil production

• Industry: Metal surface treatment and heat treatment
• Description: Wastewater treatment sludge from the chemical corrosion treatment process and wastewater treatment sludge from the treatment of non-boric acid chemical treatment solutions in the production of capacitor aluminum foil for aluminum electrolytic capacitors

Scraps from wind turbine blade production

• Industry: Wind power systems
• Description: Glass fiber scraps, and cutting waste from wind turbine blade production

Wastewater treatment sludge from the production of water-based coating materials for building walls

• Industry: Coating materials
• Description: Sludge from wastewater treatment in the production of water-based coating materials for building walls

Filter residues and wastewater sludge from acrylic emulsion production

• Industry: Coating materials
• Description: Filter residues and wastewater sludge from acrylic emulsion production based on organic monomer polymerization using acrylic acid and its esters, styrene, vinyl acetate, etc. as the primary raw materials

Residues from cobalt smelting

• Industry: Nickel and cobalt smelting
• Description: Residues generated in cobalt salt production from crude cobalt hydroxide by hydrometallurgy

Aluminum oxide waste from hydrogen peroxide production

• Industry: Basic chemicals
• Description: Aluminum oxide waste (also called “waste white clay”) from reduction and other processes in hydrogen peroxide production by anthraquinone process 

Incinerator bottom ash from the co-incineration of household waste and infectious medical waste

• Industry: Environmental governance
• Description: Incinerator bottom ash from the co-incineration of infectious medical waste that meets the Standard for Pollution Control on the Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (GB 18485) and other waste.

Waste of ion exchange resins

• Industry: No specific industry
• Description: Waste of ion exchange resins from the production of drinking water, industrial pure water, pure water for laboratories and soft water for boilers