Four new national standards (GBs) concerning water pollutant discharge from domestic textile-related industries are recently made public by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). Three of the four GBs have been formulated for the first time in history and one is revised to replace its 1992 old edition. All of the four standards are mandatory and will be put into effect since 1 January 2013.
Full GB title and code are shown as follows:
Discharge standards of water pollutants for reeling industry (GB 28936-2012)
Discharge standards of water pollutants for woolen textile industry (GB 28937-2012)
Discharge standards of water pollutants for bast and leaf fibres textile industry (GB 28938-2012)
The four standards specify the discharge limits and monitoring/control requirements for the respective industries during the production process. It is worth noting that, in GB 4287-2012, the discharge limits for several pollutant indicators have been substantially reduced, including the limits for pH value, CODCr, BOD5, suspended solids, chroma, ammonia nitrogen and anilines. New GB 4287 also adjusts the involved pollutant-monitoring indicators, which is characterized by the addition of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorine dioxide and absorbable organic halide (AOX), and the differentiation of direct and indirect discharge limitation.
