Short answer
China's e-waste Regulation applies to recovery, treatment, and related activities for discarded products listed in the national . The 2014 edition has applied since 1 March 2016 and lists 14 classes, including refrigerators, room air conditioners, washing machines, televisions, monitors, microcomputers, and mobile communication handsets. Several entries contain technical limits, so the class name alone does not settle coverage. The Regulation distinguishes collection from treatment, requires covered waste to reach a qualified treatment enterprise, and regulates the enterprise's certificate, monitoring, data reporting, and record retention. Producers and import consignees or agents also have product-design and information duties. The Regulation still states the original treatment-fund framework, but official fund collection and the former subsidy for products newly treated stopped on 1 January 2024.
has applied since 1 July 2016 to electrical and electronic products produced, sold, or imported in China, subject to its own definition and exclusions. The definition covers equipment and supporting products that rely on current or electromagnetic fields, or generate, transmit, or measure them, at rated voltage up to 1,500 V DC or 1,000 V AC; equipment for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution is excluded. China RoHS governs design and production controls, packaging, hazardous-substance marking, and the . The 2026 and exception list took effect on 28 May 2026 and replaced the first-batch catalogue. Listed products must meet the stated substance-limit timing and enter the conformity-assessment system. GB 26572-2025 is published but does not take effect until 1 August 2027, when it will replace GB/T 26572-2011.
The catalogues are not interchangeable. Inclusion in the does not establish coverage under the e-waste Treatment Catalogue, and the reverse does not complete the China RoHS analysis. Check the exact product and current entry in each applicable catalogue.
Articles 2-3 define treatment and Treatment Catalogue scope; Articles 7 and 10-17 allocate producer, importer, collection, qualified-treatment, monitoring, reporting, and retention duties.
Articles 2-3, 9-18 and 23 establish China RoHS scope, actor duties, marking, environmental protection use period, Compliance Management Catalogue, conformity assessment, and the 1 July 2016 commencement date.
The official announcement made the 2014 Treatment Catalogue effective on 1 March 2016 and links the catalogue containing the 14 covered classes and their product-specific definitions and limits.
Confirms that fund collection and the former subsidy for products newly treated stopped on 1 January 2024.
Confirms the 28 May 2026 effective date, replacement of the first-batch catalogue, ten controlled substances, catalogue timing, exceptions, and conformity-assessment scope.
Confirms that GB 26572-2025 was published on 1 August 2025, takes effect on 1 August 2027, and will replace GB/T 26572-2011.