National environmental protection standards related to tires, rubber, and footwear manufacturing

On March 30th, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued 5 national environmental protection standards for the technical specifications of application and issuance of pollution discharge permits through Announcement No. 23 in 2020. Among them, 2 are related to the rubber industry: "Technical Specifications for Application and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits for the Rubber and Plastic Products Industry" (HJ1122 - 2020) and "Technical Specifications for Application and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits for the Footwear Manufacturing Industry" (HJ1123 - 2020). These standards came into effect on the date of issuance.

"Technical Specifications for Application and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits for the Rubber and Plastic Products Industry"

This standard stipulates the requirements for filling in the basic information of pollution discharge permit applications and issuance for pollution - discharging units in the rubber products industry, the determination of permitted emission limits, the calculation of actual emissions, the methods for compliance determination, as well as environmental management requirements such as self - monitoring, environmental management ledgers, and pollution discharge permit implementation reports. It also puts forward the requirements for feasible pollution prevention and control technologies for pollution - discharging units in the rubber products industry.

Among them, the rubber products industry refers to the activities of producing various rubber products using natural rubber, synthetic rubber, and recycled rubber as raw materials, but excludes the activities of producing vulcanized rubber powder, recycled rubber, pyrolysis oil, etc. using waste tires and waste rubber as the main raw materials, as well as the manufacture of rubber shoes. Pollution - discharging units in the rubber products industry refer to those that contain the production process of the rubber products industry, including pollution - discharging units for tire manufacturing, rubber sheet, tube, and belt manufacturing, rubber part manufacturing, daily and medical rubber product manufacturing, plastic manufacturing for sports fields, and other rubber product manufacturing. Permitted emission limits refer to the pollutant emission concentrations (or rates) and emission amounts that are allowed to be discharged by pollution - discharging units as specified in the pollution discharge permit.

In addition, volatile organic compounds refer to organic compounds that participate in atmospheric photochemical reactions, or those determined according to relevant regulations. In this standard, non - methane total hydrocarbons (represented by NMHC) are used as a comprehensive control indicator for the emission of volatile organic compounds. Non - methane total hydrocarbons are the sum of gaseous organic compounds other than methane that have a response to a flame ionization detector, measured by the mass concentration of carbon using the specified monitoring method.

"Technical Specifications for Application and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits for the Footwear Manufacturing Industry"

This standard specifies the requirements for filling in the basic information of pollution discharge permit applications and issuance for pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry, the methods for determining permitted emission limits and conducting compliance assessment, as well as environmental management requirements such as self - monitoring, environmental management ledgers, and pollution discharge permit implementation reports. It also provides reference requirements for feasible pollution prevention and control technologies for pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry.

This standard is applicable to guiding pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry to fill in relevant application information on the national pollution discharge permit management information platform, and to guiding pollution discharge permit issuing departments to review and determine the permit requirements for pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry. It is applicable to the pollution discharge permit management of air pollutants and water pollutants discharged by pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry.

The footwear manufacturing industry refers to the production activities of textile - upper shoes, leather shoes, plastic shoes, rubber shoes, and other various types of shoes. Pollution - discharging units in the footwear manufacturing industry refer to those units or production facilities that use various production processes such as cold - bonding, vulcanization, injection - molding, compression - molding, and stitching to produce textile - upper shoes, leather shoes, plastic shoes, rubber shoes, and other various types of shoes.