How is China e-waste different from China RoHS? Direct answer

China's e-waste Regulation applies to recovery, treatment, and related activities for discarded products listed in the national Waste Electrical and Electronic Product Treatment Catalogue. 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.

China RoHS 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 environmental protection use period. The 2026 Compliance Management Catalogue 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 China RoHS Compliance Management Catalogue 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.

Link both analyses to the same product family and model, but document the legal tests separately. Run the China RoHS test when the product is produced, sold, or imported in China. Run the e-waste test when the product is discarded and a recovery or treatment route is planned. This prevents a substance-compliance record from being mistaken for evidence of lawful end-of-life treatment.