China's "Technical Requirement For Environmental Labelling Products – Kitchen Furniture" was brought into effect on July 1, 2008.
The new rule was promulgated by the Environmental Development Center of Ministry of Environmental Protection and the China Association of Decorative Building Materials, and involves environmental requirements for materials such as table-board, paint, plastic, metal components, and glass. CADBM says that the kitchen furniture industry is developing rapidly in China at present and is attracting more investors. Besides kitchen furniture manufacturing companies, related industries such as household appliances, sanitary utensils, and building materials are also expanding their business in kitchen furniture production.
Expansion of the kitchen furniture industry is causing some serious problems. For example, related industrial standards are not uniform; standardization and industrialization are hard to realize; the marketing service network is difficult to expand; and research and development for new technologies, products, techiniques and materials is behind international levels.
To address these problems, CADBM — under the aegis of the China Environmental United Certification Center — and working with other associations and companies drafted the environmental standard for kitchen furniture in August 2006, which will be the basis for kitchen furniture companies to apply for China Environmental Labelling.
The first nine kitchen furniture companies that have obtained "China Environmental Labelling" are Qingdao Haier Kitchen Facilities Co. Ltd; Shenzhen Debao Industry Development Co., Ltd; Nanjing Banta Furniture Manufacture Co., Ltd; Hefei Zhibang Kitchen Utensil Co. Ltd; Ningbo Oulin Kitchen Utensil Co. Ltd; Sakura China; Boloni Home Products (Beijing) Ltd; Foshan Hanli Furniture Manufacture Co., Ltd; and Beijing Robam Kitchen Furniture Co., Ltd. These companies are expected to be included on the government's green procurement list.