China will develop environmental legislation like for recycling (Chinese WEEE) and substances (Chinese RoHS) in its own style. Elements of for instance European and Japanese Directives will be taken on board as well but this will happen on basis of proven merit. The current confusion in Europe about European WEEE and RoHS implementation will also give clear indications what to avoid. Possible developments in the legislations in China will offer towards the European Union the opportunity for review and modification and thus to pull their present Directives out of their crisis. There are five issues which could make that China will beat Europe in effectiveness of Environmental legislation for Electronics: 1. Clear separation between national laws (which are difficult to change) and implementation standards (which can be updated regularly) 2. Stronger upfront guidance on national level as regards organization principles and administrative procedures/formats 3. Use of product catalogs instead of (application based) categories definitions. 4. Determine room to maneuver on basis of ‘packages’ which eco-design, new technology and system organization can deliver for specific products or product groups in the product catalog. Taking this into account in target setting will be very effective. 5. No distinction between B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2B (Business to Business), no distinction between ‘’historical’’ and future’’ waste and only one collection system out of which several dedicated streams can be separated. In a more detailed analysis it will be made clear that especially the product catalog concept will be helpful to realize in practice the intent of the Chinese and European legislation. For WEEE the product catalog is to be based on a material composition of the product. Recycling of precious metal dominated products will result in the best environmental gains, followed by metal dominated products and glass dominated products. Plastic dominated products rank last in priority. For RoHS product and parts catalog can be built based on potential toxic analysis.
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