GB/T 44837-2024Green product assessment - Stationery (English PDF)

1 Scope

This document sets the assessment requirements for green stationery products and describes the corresponding assessment methods.

This document applies to the green product assessment of stationery.

This document does not apply to electrically driven stationery.

3 Terms and definitions

The terms and definitions given in GB/T 33761, GB/T 35600 and GB 40070 apply to this document.

4 Assessment requirements

4.1.1 The discharge of pollutants by the manufacturer shall meet the relevant environmental protection laws and regulations and shall reach the national and local pollutant discharge standards and the total quantity control targets; there shall have been no major or greater safety accident and no major or greater environmental pollution incident in the past three years.

4.1.2 The manufacturer shall use advanced technologies and processes encouraged by the state, shall meet the corresponding cleaner production standards, and shall not use technologies, processes, equipment or substances that the state or the competent authorities have declared obsolete or prohibited.

4.1.3 The manufacturer shall have a dedicated place for storing the solid waste arising in production, so as to prevent it from being scattered, lost or leaking away; the quantity and the harmfulness of the solid waste shall be reduced, and the waste shall be rendered harmless and put to use as a resource.

4.1.4 The manufacturer shall set up and run a quality management system, an energy management system, an environmental management system and an occupational health and safety management system in accordance with GB/T 19001, GB/T 23331, GB/T 24001 and GB/T 45001. A stationery manufacturer shall provide energy metering instruments in accordance with GB 17167 and shall provide pollutant monitoring and online monitoring equipment as the relevant laws, regulations and standards require.

4.1.5 The manufacturer shall set out its requirements on quality, environment, energy and safety management to the suppliers of the main raw materials, to production partners and to related service providers.

4.1.6 The quality of the product shall meet the relevant compulsory national standards and the relevant safety standards, and the standard it is declared to be made to shall be stated. Where a current national or industry product standard has grades, the product shall reach the highest grade in it.

4.2 Assessment indicator requirements. The green product assessment indicators for stationery are of two levels, the green benchmark product indicator and the green product indicator. The indicators shall meet Table 1.

Table 1 sets the indicators in three families. Under resource attributes it covers the sourcing of paper, which is to be made from recycled pulp or from pulp from sustainably managed forest, the sourcing of timber, which is to be of lawful origin with imported timber meeting the national timber trade requirements, and the packaging recycling mark. Under environmental attributes it covers printing inks, with a preference for water-based inks in recording stationery and ceilings on volatile organic compound content in offset, gravure and flexographic inks; adhesives, with a preference for water-based types and limits on benzene, on the sum of toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, on the sum of dichloromethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethane and trichloroethylene, and on total volatile organic compounds; the combined content of cadmium, lead, mercury and chromium in packaging; the migration of specific elements, whose limits are set in Annex A; total lead and total cadmium in paints and similar coatings; bisphenol A in thermal paper; residual vinyl chloride monomer, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polybrominated biphenyls and two groups of phthalates in plastics; named polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and naphthalene, and the specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons listed in Annex C, in accessible plastic parts; short-chain chlorinated paraffins; an undertaking that no halogenated hydrocarbons or alkylphenol ethoxylates are added; methanol and the total of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene in water-based, neutral and oil-based inks and in liquid glue, glue stick and paste; free formaldehyde in inks, modelling clay, art colours and glues; azo dyes that release harmful primary aromatic amines in inks, modelling clay and art colours; four preservatives and the sum of two of them; and, for textile parts, azo dyes releasing harmful aromatic amines, carcinogenic dyes, sensitizing dyes and other dyes, all prohibited, together with formaldehyde and short-chain chlorinated paraffins. Under quality attributes it covers product durability expressed as a percentage of the value in the applicable product standard, corrosion resistance of metal coatings by neutral salt spray, nickel release, the D65 brightness of student and of office paper and the D65 fluorescent brightness. Under low carbon attributes it requires a product carbon footprint report. Each indicator carries a unit, a benchmark value for green benchmark products and one for green products, and the test method and evidence to be provided. For stationery combining several materials, each material shall meet the corresponding requirements of this document. Footnotes exempt samples of a single material below a stated mass, restrict total lead and total cadmium to paints and similar coatings, restrict the specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to accessible plastic materials and parts, and set the limits at which the prohibited dye classes are taken to be present.

4.3 Encouraged requirements. The product and the producer shall meet the relevant green and low carbon encouraged requirements, which include but are not limited to: design for reduction, reuse and recycling while the product still performs its function; the use of recycled or renewable raw materials, with a purchasing list of the raw materials provided; the setting up and running by the manufacturer of higher level management systems such as carbon emission management, according to its own circumstances; the statement, under the extended producer responsibility system, of how the product is to be recovered and treated once damaged or discarded; and the use of clean energy by the manufacturer.

5 Assessment method

The green assessment of stationery is of two levels, green benchmark product and green product. The assessment method and the conditions to be met shall meet Table 2.

Table 2 sets the conditions. A green benchmark product shall meet all the basic requirements of 4.1, shall meet all the green benchmark product benchmark values of Table 1, and shall meet any three or more of the encouraged requirements of 4.3. A green product shall meet all the basic requirements of 4.1, shall meet all the green product benchmark values of Table 1, and shall meet any two or more of the encouraged requirements of 4.3.

A Migration limits for specific elements

The migration of specific elements from stationery shall meet Table A.1.

Table A.1 sets a maximum limit, in milligrams per kilogram, for each of aluminium, antimony, arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, chromium in the trivalent state, chromium in the hexavalent state, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, strontium, tin, organotin and zinc, in three material categories and at both assessment levels. For a green benchmark product the element is required not to be detected in any of the three categories; for a green product a numerical ceiling is set in each category, the ceiling being lowest for liquid or viscous materials, higher for dry, brittle and powdered materials, and highest for scrapable materials. Note 1: for the printed, brushed and coated parts of stationery that can be touched, or where a single sample yields less than 10 mg of material for a portion, the requirement is waived. Note 2: dry, brittle and powdered stationery materials are for example oil pastels, crayons, chalk and solid art colours. Note 3: liquid or viscous stationery materials are for example inks, Chinese ink, solid glue sticks, liquid glue and liquid art colours. Note 4: scrapable stationery materials are for example surface coatings, polymers, textiles, wood and metal. Note 5: organotin covers monomethyltin, dimethyltin, monobutyltin, dibutyltin, tributyltin, tetrabutyltin, monooctyltin, dioctyltin, dipropyltin, diphenyltin and triphenyltin.