Wang Ji, an official with the pollution control department of the State Environmental Protection Administration, noted at a press conference held by the administration last month that such discarded electrical appliances would "severely pollute the environment" without proper disposal.

The administration and the State Economic and Trade Commission are preparing to jointly release a series of detailed national regulations on recycling discarded electrical appliances later this year, according to Wang.

Under the new regulations, recycling networks and pilot disposal plants would be established in communities around the country over the next few years to deal with discarded electrical appliances.

The environmental administration said China discards 60,000 to 100,000 tons of computers each year, along with 30,000 to 50,000 tons of monitors, which are especially polluting.

Around 15 million household electrical appliances - mainly refrigerators, washing machines and TV sets - are discarded each year in China, administration officials estimated.

China, which has an abundant workforce, will encourage the manual disassembly of worn-out household electrical appliances to recycle more and produce less pollution, said Wang.

Manually dismantling unwanted electrical devices can save 20 to 30 per cent of resources compared with mechanical disassembly, according to administration experts.

At another press conference jointly held in Beijing on Friday by the administration and the State Council Information Office, Vice-Minister Wang Jirong of the administration also noted that China will encourage the country's producers of household electrical appliances to provide more environmentally friendly products. But she did not mention whether China would follow the European Union in making manufacturers responsible for disposing of their worn-out electrical products.

The environmental administration, the General Administration of Customs, the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine will also work out detailed regulations to ban the import of certain categories of pollution-causing worn-out electrical appliances, according to the vice-minister.

In 2000, China issued an import ban covering 11 categories of discarded electrical devices, including computer monitors, ohotocopiers, telephones and video cameras.

The environmental administration also recently investigated cases of mass importing and disposal of electrical waste in Chaoyang in South China's Guangdong Province and in Taizhou in East China's Zhejiang Province.

Several small waste-treatment plants in the two provinces were shut down for illegally processing imports of banned electrical appliances, according to the environmental administration.

(China Daily June 3, 2002)