SAN FRANCISCO – Phones and printers are among the electronics products covered by a document restricting the disposal of electronics products issued last week by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The document covers phones (cell, PSTN, and wireless) and all manner of printers. Some exemptions are allowed; these appear to be a subset of the ones allowed by EU RoHS, according to Design Chain Associates, an industry consulting group.
 
The proposed Key Administrative Catalog for the Pollution Control of Electronic Information Products (Batch 1) is the catalog for which phase 2 restriction requirements will apply, DCA says. It was issued Oct. 9, and a public consultation period runs through Nov. 9.
 
Phase 2 restrictions will go into effect 10 months after the catalog is promulgated, says DCA.
 
Phase 2 requires Chinese labs to test the products to verify compliance. As the catalog does not address this, implementation remains unclear.