On October 26, 2026, the General Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued the Letter on Soliciting Public Comments on the Regulations for the Administration of the Recovery and Disposal of Waste Electric and Electronic Products (Draft for Comments) and the Measures for the Administration of Hazardous Waste Operation Licenses (Draft for Comments), publicly soliciting comments on the draft revisions of the above two regulations, with a deadline of November 25, 2026 for comments.
Revision Background
This revision is intended to implement the requirements of the Ecological and Environmental Code of the People's Republic of China, meet the development needs of the industry, and further regulate the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products and the administration of hazardous waste operation licenses. After the promulgation and implementation of the Ecological and Environmental Code, the two laws on which the two regulations were originally based — the Cleaner Production Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste — have both been repealed, and some provisions of the current regulations are inconsistent with the Code. In addition, on December 27, 2025, the State Council issued the Action Plan for the Comprehensive Management of Solid Waste, which explicitly requires revising the regulations and rules concerning the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products and the regulations on hazardous waste operation licenses; in July 2026, MEE led the issuance of the 15th Five-Year Plan for Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control, requiring continuous improvement of the institutional system for the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products.
Key Revisions of the WEEE Regulation: Producer Take-back Responsibility to Change from Encouraged to Mandatory
The current Regulations for the Administration of the Recovery and Disposal of Waste Electric and Electronic Products (the WEEE Regulation, State Council Decree No. 551) have been in force since January 1, 2011. The draft revision consists of 5 chapters and 36 articles; according to the drafting explanation, 14 articles are modified, and 1 article is added compared with the current regulation. The main contents are as follows:
- Aligning with the Ecological and Environmental Code. The legal basis is updated by replacing the repealed Cleaner Production Promotion Law and Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste with the Ecological and Environmental Code, and expressions related to “environmental protection” are uniformly revised to “ecological and environmental protection”.
- Implementing the extended producer responsibility (EPR) system. In accordance with Articles 978 and 1223 of the Code, the establishment of a waste product take-back system by producers of electrical and electronic products is adjusted from an encouraging provision to a mandatory one: producers shall, in accordance with state provisions, establish, by building it themselves or by entrusting sellers, maintenance institutions, after-sales service institutions or operators engaged in the recovery of waste electrical and electronic products, etc., a waste product take-back system commensurate with their product sales volume, make it public, and fulfill their take-back and utilization responsibilities. The draft adds a corresponding penalty: those failing to comply will be ordered to make corrections by the competent authorities for industry and information technology, commerce, etc., and those refusing to make corrections will be fined between RMB 50,000 and RMB 500,000.
- Aligning with the pollutant discharge permit and ecological and environmental monitoring systems. Data of waste electrical and electronic product processing enterprises included in pollutant discharge permit management shall be managed in accordance with the Regulations on the Administration of Pollutant Discharge Permits, and basic data on the processing of waste electrical and electronic products shall be kept for no less than 3 years. Processing enterprises that fail to establish an ecological and environmental monitoring system or to carry out ecological and environmental monitoring will be penalized in accordance with the Ecological and Environmental Code, the Regulations on Ecological and Environmental Monitoring and other relevant laws, and administrative regulations.
- Filling the gaps in penalties. Newly added are penalties for forging, altering, reselling, renting out, lending or otherwise illegally transferring processing qualification certificates — a fine of between RMB 50,000 and RMB 100,000 plus revocation of the certificate — and for processing waste electrical and electronic products beyond the scope specified in the qualification certificate — a fine of between RMB 50,000 and RMB 100,000, or, where the circumstances are serious, a fine of between RMB 100,000 and RMB 200,000 plus revocation of the certificate. In addition, those using backward dismantling and processing technologies, techniques or equipment explicitly eliminated by the state or failing to meet ecological and environmental protection requirements will have their illegal gains confiscated and be fined between 1 and 5 times the value of the goods.
Key Revisions of the Hazardous Waste Operation License Measures: Service Scope of Collection Licenses to Be Expanded and Approval Authority to Be Shifted up to the Level of Cities Divided into Districts
The current Measures for the Administration of Permit for Operation of Dangerous Waste were promulgated on May 30, 2004, under State Council Decree No. 408 and revised twice in 2013 and 2016. The draft revision retains the basic framework of six chapters, comprising 6 chapters and 32 articles in total, and makes adjustments and improvements in four aspects:
- Aligning with higher-level laws. The legal basis is changed from the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste to the Ecological and Environmental Code; the categories of operation licenses are unified by adding “utilization” to the existing collection, storage, and disposal, and a definition of “utilization” is added to the supplementary provisions; penalty standards are refined at the same time. For example, those that should re-apply for and obtain a license but fail to do so, or that continue operating after the license expires without renewal, will have their illegal gains confiscated, be fined between RMB 200,000 and RMB 1 million for collection and storage activities or between RMB 1 million and RMB 5 million for utilization and disposal activities, and be ordered to suspend business or shut down upon approval by the people’s government with the approving authority; their legal representatives, principal persons in charge, directly responsible managers and other directly liable persons will be fined between RMB 100,000 and RMB 1 million.
- Optimizing the collection license system. The service scope of collection operation licenses is extended to entities generating small quantities of hazardous waste, consolidating the national pilot program's practical experience on hazardous waste collection by small and micro hazardous waste generators since 2022 into statutory rules.
- Improving the hierarchical approval system. Requirements for overall planning are added, the hierarchical approval mechanism is improved, the approval authority for collection operation licenses is adjusted from the county level to the level of cities divided into districts, and the boundaries of regulatory responsibilities are clarified.
- Moving license processing online. It is made clear that the review and decision-making, information disclosure, and other matters for hazardous waste operation licenses are handled through the national hazardous waste information management system, so as to improve the efficiency of approval services and reduce the compliance cost for business entities.
Submitting Comments
All government organs, social organizations, enterprises and public institutions, and individuals may put forward opinions and suggestions. Comments should be fed back to MEE in writing, with electronic materials also sent to the contact persons’ email addresses, by November 25, 2026. Contacts: Wang Ziyuan and Tu Haifeng, Department of Solid Waste and Chemicals, MEE; Tel: (010) 65645788, 65645770; Email: gtszhc@mee.gov.cn; Address: No. 12 East Chang’an Avenue, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100006.
ChemRadar Insights
The two draft revisions respectively involve producers of electrical and electronic products, consignees of imported electrical and electronic products or their agents, processing enterprises of waste electrical and electronic products, and entities engaged in the collection, storage, utilization and disposal of hazardous waste. With producers’ waste product take-back responsibility set to change from encouraged to mandatory and supported by penalties, relevant electrical and electronic enterprises need to assess in advance the development of their own take-back systems and their information disclosure arrangements; hazardous waste collection operators, for their part, need to watch the expansion of the license service scope, the adjustment of the approval authority and the full online processing. Enterprises concerned are advised to assess the compliance impact in light of their own businesses and, if they have comments, feed them back to MEE before the deadline.
