Chemicals | Monthly bulletin | December 2022

Europe

Forum enforcement projects 2023-2025 on imported products

On 16 November 2022, ECHA announced the next REACH enforcement project. The new REACH-EN-Force will aim to control the imports of substances, mixtures and articles. It will investigate how companies fulfil the registration, authorisation and restriction obligations for products and chemicals they import from outside the EU. The project will run in 2023-2025 with the cooperation of national customs authorities and REACH inspectors.

This project arose as a result of the 2019 pilot project, the results of which indicated that 23% of inspected products were non-compliant with requirements set by EU law and that further controls are necessary.

For more information, consult the ECHA’s website here.

Additional recent updates regarding REACH Regulation

The following table provides a summary of some recent updates (non-exhaustive) regarding REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006:

Other interesting links about REACH from the ECHA’s website

• Registry of restriction intentions until outcome - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Registry of SVHC intentions until outcome - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Substance evaluation - CoRAP - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Adopted opinions and previous consultations on applications for authorisation - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Applications for authorisation - current consultations - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Current calls for comments and evidence - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Authorisation List - ECHA (europa.eu)
• ECHA's completed activities on restriction
• Submitted restrictions under consideration
• Assessment of regulatory needs list

Other interesting links about CLP from the ECHA’s website

• Registry of CLH intentions until outcome - ECHA (europa.eu)
• Harmonised classification and labelling consultations - ECHA (europa.eu)

Miscellaneous technical publications relating to chemicals

The latest publications in relation to chemicals are summarised in the table below:

France

Mandatory environmental information in consumer products

A product’s environmental qualities and characteristics is very relevant for consumers. It will therefore be mandatory for all consumer products place in the French market in 2023.

According to Decree 2022-748 of 29 April 2022 relating to consumer information on the environmental qualities and characteristics of waste-generating products, this obligations will come into force gradually.

Below is a summary table with the main dates and turnover of the companies:

This information shall be available in a dematerialised format, accessible free of charge at the time of purchase and reusable so as to allow aggregation.

The producer or importer shall make available the information provided on a dedicated website or internet page comprising a sheet entitled “product sheet relating to the qualities and environmental characteristics” so as to allow direct research and queries on the internet as well as the extraction of data for possible automated processing of the information presented.

For more information, consult the Ministry of Energy Transition’s website here and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Spain

News on plastic tax

From 1^st January 2023, the new environmental tax that applies to non-reusable plastic containers will come into force. Through Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils, the new special tax on non-reusable plastic containers has been established, which is related to the Law on packaging and packaging waste. The main changes are related to the incorporation of the special tax on non-reusable plastic containers. The following bullet points summarise the most important changes:

• The tax will aim to promote the prevention of the generation of non-reusable plastic packaging waste, as well as promoting the recycling of plastic waste, contributing to the circularity of this material.
• The definition of hazardous waste of sanitary origin has been incorporated, which is exempt from the tax.
• The time in which the exemption from the tax on containers within the scope of application that have been imported or acquired intra-community, and which weight 5kg or less, has been limited to one month.
• Recycled plastic certified by the UNE-EN 15343-2008 standard is accepted, as well as that from duly certified chemical recycling.
• Date of entry into force: 1^st January 2023.

If you need information or have questions about the procedures related to the new tax, consult the new documents published on the Tax Agency website, here.

UK

Updates related to waste packaging

The latest publications in relation to waste packaging and Producer Responsibility Obligations are summarised in the table below:

US

Recent Prop 65 60-Day Notices - PFOA/PFOS

California Proposition 65 is the ‘Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986’, which has been effective for almost 30 years. Recently, there have been many new 60-day notices concerning Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA). Please see below Table 1 for the recent 60-day notices.

Table 1:

Taiwan

Taiwan Amends Regulation for Labeling and MSDS for Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances

On November 4^th, 2022, Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) issued an amendment to the Regulations for Labeling and Materials Safety Data Sheets for Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances. The amendment includes the following changes:

• Includes requirement that containers or packaging of toxic and concerned chemical substances should comply with the classification and labeling key points that are determined by the national standard CNS 15030 and should clearly mark the following items in accordance with the prescribed format:

• Pictograms: A square presented at a 45 degree angle to the vertical direction consisting of a red outline on a white background. The interior of the square should contain a suitable sized black symbol for identification
• Contents:
  • Name
  • Hazardous ingredients: all toxic or concerned chemical substances exceeding the control concentration shall be labeled with the Chinese and English names announced by the competent authority and the CAS number
  • Caution words or warnings
  • Hazard statements
  • Precautionary statements
  • Name, address, and telephone number of the manufacturer, vendor, or supplier

• Includes minimum dimension requirements for labels; Folding or hangtag labels may be used if unfeasible due to the size, shape, or material of the container or packaging
• Includes special warning requirement for concerned chemical substances
• Includes requirement for mixtures containing toxic or concerned chemical substances to list the hazardous ingredients on the SDS and label

The amendment went into effect on November 4^th, 2022, except for Article 3 (label content) and Article 4 (minimum dimensions of the label), which will become effective on October 31^st, 2023.

Vietnam

Vietnam Amends Chemical Management Regulation

On October 18^th, 2022, Vietnam issued Decree No. 82/2022/ND-CP to amend certain articles of its chemical management law, Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP. Effective December 22^nd, 2022, below are some of the key amendments to Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP under the new decree:

• Added 16 new chemicals to Appendix I – List of Chemicals subject to conditional production and trading in the industrial sectors
• Changed the threshold for skin/respiratory sensitizer to ≥ 1.0% in Clause 1, Article 24
• Changed number 231 to Mercury and its compounds in Table 1 of Appendix I - List of hazardous chemicals that require a chemical incident prevention and response plan
• Added 6 new chemicals to Appendix V 0 List of chemicals to be declared
• Added a new Appendix II – List of chemicals limited for production and trading in industrial sector
• Added Article 10a – Cases not subject to issuance of certificate of eligibility for production and trading of chemicals
• Added Article 16a – Cases not subject to issuance of license for production and trading of chemicals