Air Pollutant Emission Standards for the Packaging and Printing Industry to Be Developed in 2014

[ppzhan abstract] Recently, smoggy weather has seriously affected the lives of people in the three northeastern provinces, and for this reason Beijing activated its emergency plan for heavy pollution. But this can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. To prevent and control this air pollution, we must solve the problem at its source. In 2014, China will formulate emission standards for atmospheric pollutants for packaging and printing and other industries.

The smog that has invaded China is already shocking. In the past few days, the provincial capitals of the three northeastern provinces have all been shrouded in smog, and among them the attack of the "worst smog in history" on the 21st caught Harbin off guard. That day happened to be the day Harbin officially turned on its heating, and with the heating came the smog. The severe smoggy weather caused the PM2.5 index to "go off the charts" in many areas.

Beijing released its emergency plan for heavy pollution yesterday afternoon. Under this plan, once the city encounters air pollution, four levels will be classified according to the degree of pollution, activating blue, yellow, orange and red four-level warnings. When the highest-level red warning is activated, motor vehicles across the city will be subject to odd-even license plate restrictions as required, and for local government vehicles of the city, in addition to the odd-even driving scheme, a further 30% of all official vehicles will be taken off the road.

On September 2, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau held a press conference on "declaring war on PM2.5", releasing the Breakdown of Key Tasks in the Beijing 2013-2017 Clean Air Action Plan and other recent plans and targets related to air pollution control. The plan stipulates that emission standards for atmospheric pollutants for industries such as packaging and printing, wooden furniture manufacturing and automobile manufacturing will be formulated in 2014, along with limit standards for volatile organic compounds in products.

In implementing volatile organic compound treatment projects in key industries, the main measures are: promoting the use of advanced coating process technologies in key industries such as automobile manufacturing, packaging and printing, and furniture manufacturing, and optimizing spray painting processes and equipment; deepening the treatment of organic waste gas from coating, where solvent-based coating processes must be carried out in enclosed operations, equipped with facilities for collecting, recovering and purifying organic waste gas, with the organic waste gas collection rate gradually reaching over 90% to ensure compliant emissions; and advancing the treatment of volatile organic compounds from other solvent-using processes. Starting from 2013, emissions of volatile organic compounds from key industries in each district and county will be reduced by about 10% each year; by 2017, cumulative emission reductions will reach about 50% compared with 2012.

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

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361864.html