China suggested to reconsider its beer bottle recycling standards
Post date
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16/08/2006 09:16
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China's GB4544-1996 standards require beer bottles to bear a letter B. In addition, the bottle maker's logo and production year have to be marked on the bottle as well.
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by Michael Li
China's national standards on beer bottles, GB4544-1996, issued in 1996, now seem to be unable to provide sufficient legal grounds for protecting the rightful rights of consumers in accidents caused by prolonged use of recycled bottles, and a revision is so suggested.
In a letter recently written to China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Hebei Consumers' Association proposed specifying the service life of recycled beer bottles and making it compulsory.
The proposal was made in response to some beer manufacturers' refusal to compensate consumers for being injured in a series of beer bottle explosions while drinking their products in Hebei Province in the past few months.
Loophole in current regulation
These beer manufacturers said they were not responsible for the accidents because the provision of using beer bottles of less than two years in GB4544-1966 was propositional but not mandatory, so, as long as beer bottles did not explode during packaging, they were eligible products and manufacturers should bear no responsibility on accidents happening during their consumption.
Nie Yundong, Deputy Secretary-General of Hebei Consumers' Association, pointed out whether the propositional two years were in place depended largely on beer manufacturers' self-discipline, which, however, was generally low at the moment as most manufacturers put profits before social responsibilities.
He therefore said it was imperative that the government should establish a compulsory provision on the service life of recycled beer bottles.
Aging bottles pose great risks
Surveys from local government agencies reveal that the unstable quality of beer bottles - resulted from excessive reuse - was the main cause for the blowup. Yet long-used beer bottles are prevalent in the market; some produced more than 13 years ago are still in use in some regions according to investigations. What's worse, some beer bottles being used do not meet the requirements for beer bottles, or even those for bottles.
In addition to the accidents in Hebei, there have been more reported all over the country recently.
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