VOCs control measures in developed countries and regions
The United States:
The United States has established a relatively complete legal, regulatory and policy system for VOCs control and management, implementing industry-specific and type-specific control measures. There are corresponding laws and regulations for major VOCs-emitting industries, and comprehensive control has been implemented for each VOCs emission process in industrial production. In fixed-source emission control, different control requirements are distinguished for new and old sources, and new sources are subject to specific standards. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States classifies air pollutants from fixed sources into two categories: conventional pollutants and toxic pollutants. Its management of atmospheric pollutants is mainly based on the impact on human health, and the policy and legal standards for VOCs are also based on public health and well-being. The US government conducts national-level risk assessments of toxic air pollutants on a regular basis and establishes a toxic air pollutant control benchmark system based on risk assessment models and pollutant census results.
EU:
The regulations and policies formulated by relevant EU institutions are mainly transmitted to member states in the form of directives, and each country converts them into its own laws and policies according to its specific circumstances. The EU implements VOCs classification control standards, which specify classification methods and classification control requirements. The EU implements an emission information disclosure system for VOCs, and the European Register enables the public to obtain detailed information on the emissions of approximately 12,000 industrial facilities into the air and water bodies. The European Commission has also initiated an annual assessment to invite all stakeholders to examine and discuss how to improve industrial emission regulations to better protect the environment and human health. The results of this assessment will also provide evidence for the overall environmental protection actions of the EU.
Japan:
In 2004, the Japanese Diet passed the amendment bill of the "Air Pollution Prevention Law", which included provisions on the information declaration and registration of emission devices, emission standards, and inspection obligations regarding VOCs. The standards were based on the methods of Europe and the United States, classifying VOCs pollution sources according to their scale. From the perspective of emission standard limits for certain scales, Japan's VOCs control standards are relatively lenient. However, in its regulatory standard system, in addition to mandatory emission reduction through regulatory standards for large pollution sources, two-thirds of the target reduction is accomplished by enterprises through coordinated efforts by industry associations, with expert inspections, evaluations, and guidance organized by environmental protection management institutions. Taiwan has made pollution source registration and declaration a legal obligation and provided detailed guidance, enabling the acquisition of relatively accurate emission information from pollution sources, which can provide real information for the next stage of decision-making. The regulations also attach great importance to the emission testing methods and offer financing and tax incentives for enterprises to carry out VOCs control.
Taiwan Region:
In 1997, Taiwan promulgated the "Volatile Organic Compound Air Pollution Control and Emission Standards" and related supervision, inspection, rewards, and penalties supporting management systems, strictly regulating the VOCs emission control in the petrochemical industry. In terms of the control of persistent organic pollutant emissions, after 1997, five industry-specific dioxin emission standards such as "Dioxin Control and Emission Standards for Waste Incineration Furnaces" and "Dioxin Control and Emission Standards for Steel Industry Dusty High-Temperature Smelting Facilities" were successively promulgated. In 2006, the "Fixed Pollution Source Dioxin Emission Standards" and its related implementation policies were promulgated. Through continuous improvements of the "Air Pollution Prevention Law", continuous revisions and tightening of emission standards for fixed and mobile sources, and the establishment of the "Volatile Organic Compound Air Pollution Control and Emission Standards" for fixed sources, in combination with the implementation of related supervision, inspection, rewards, and penalties supporting management systems, the emission pollution problem of VOCs has been effectively controlled since the beginning of this century.
(Original source: VOCs Committee)
