On March 1st, 2021, in order to thoroughly implement the national policies, ensure the healthy and stable development of the building insulation industry, and construct and improve the long-term self-discipline mechanism of the industry, China Building Energy Conservation Association and China Real Estate Association jointly held a press conference on the prohibition of HBCD and the alternative application of environmental flame retardants in the field of building energy conservation and green building in Beijing. The meeting was guided by the Standards and Quotas Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Solid Waste and Chemicals Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Relevant government departments, industry organizations, scientific research institutions, production suppliers, architectural design units, real estate developers, etc. attended the press release and made speeches. Xinhua News Agency, Guangming.com, China.com, china construction news, China Environmental News, China Building Materials News, World Wide Web, Phoenix.com, Consumer Daily, Building Energy Saving Magazine, Building Magazine, China Knowledge Network, Sina Real Estate (Weibo), Netease, Sohu and other media reported on the meeting.
Moderator: Yang Xiwei, Chief Engineer of China Building Energy Conservation Association
发布会由中国建筑节能协会总工程师杨西伟主持。
生态环境部对外合作与交流中心副主任 余立风
生态环境部对外合作与交流中心余立风副主任对我国禁用HBCD的相关政策进行了介绍，余主任从国际履约、贯彻落实习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想、促进生态文明建设等方面强调了我国禁用HBCD的重要性和急迫性，同时，对我国HBCD淘汰及环保阻燃剂在建筑节能与绿色建筑中替代应用工作提出殷切期望。
住房和城乡建设部标准定额司一级巡视员 倪江波
住房和城乡建设部标准定额司倪江波一级巡视员强调此项工作对城乡建设绿色发展和建筑领域碳达峰碳中和的重要意义，下一步将依托行业协会，从建筑应用端全面推进HBCD的禁用与替代对我国建设领域EPS/XPS应用与HBCD禁用情况进行了介绍。
本次发布会上，中国建筑节能协会发布了《中国建筑节能协会与中国房地产业协会关于在建筑节能与绿色建筑领域禁用HBCD的联合倡议》和《中国建筑节能协会及全国各地方相关协学会关于在建筑节能与绿色建筑领域禁用HBCD的联合倡议》，倡导建筑节能与绿色建筑领域上中下游企业共同禁用HBCD并推广应用环保阻燃剂。
Wu Yong, President of China Building Energy Conservation Association
President Wu Yong of China Building Energy Conservation Association introduced the work plan of eliminating HBCD and promoting the application of environmental-friendly flame retardants in the field of building energy conservation and green building in China. The association plans to organize relevant units to set up a working committee for prohibiting HBCD and promoting the application of environmental-friendly flame retardants, to carry out the evaluation and verification of the basic performance of environmental-friendly flame retardants, to study the alternative application performance of environmental-friendly EPS/XPS engineering, and to demonstrate the new insulation system engineering. Improve relevant standards and norms in building planning, design, construction, acceptance, operation, transformation and demolition, study and put forward suggestions on improving the management mechanism in the construction field, establish an industry self-discipline platform, and carry out engineering application promotion, publicity and training and knowledge management.
Chen Yiming, Vice President of China Real Estate Association
Vice President Chen Yiming of China Real Estate Association introduced the action plan to ban HBCD in the real estate industry through three conveniences: awareness in place, effective measures and up-to-standard quality. President Chen said:
First, the understanding should be in place, and the knowledge of banning HBCD should be in place. In addition to the fact that the material itself is banned, the deeper logic is actually an important part of China’s realization of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality and the commitment made by the General Secretary. All sectors of society should do their part;
Second, effective measures should be taken. In view of the HBCD that will be banned soon, relevant enterprises should not produce, purchase or use materials for project construction;
Third, the quality is up to standard. According to the statistical report on building development quality released by the state in 2019, real estate is the focus of project quality in terms of the national building volume of 11.416 billion square meters. The real estate industry should do its own work in both housing and public buildings, and the price fluctuation of thermal insulation materials cannot be caused because HBCD is banned or other reasons, thus affecting the building quality.
President Chen also stressed that from the perspective of China Real Estate Association, the next step will be to promote real estate development enterprises to insist on not purchasing insulation materials containing HBCD. In the procurement of building insulation materials, non-HBCD and application of environmental flame retardants will be taken as bidding conditions, and all real estate development enterprises will be organized to actively participate in various activities prohibited by HBCD.
Ma Xinbo, Technology and Industrialization Development Center of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, analyzed the main points of banning HBCD in the construction field.
Cao Bin, Dean of China Institute of Architectural Standards and Design, introduced the relevant situation of the Institute of Standards in standard formulation and the action plan of prohibiting HBCD in architectural design.
Director Yang Yuzhong of Building Energy Efficiency Evaluation Center of China Academy of Building Research (National Building Energy Efficiency Quality Supervision and Inspection Center) introduced the efforts made by the testing center in related work.
Ji Guangqi, a researcher at the Institute of Building Fire Prevention of China Academy of Building Research, made a speech, and put forward some related thoughts (from building material fire prevention to building structure fire prevention) on the flame retardant effect brought by the application of new flame retardants and the existing building fire prevention codes.
Secretary-General Pan Lu of Beijing Building Energy Conservation and Environmental Engineering Association introduced the work plan of banning HBCD in Beijing. Secretary-General Pan said that the next step of the association will actively promote the relevant member units to stop the production, supply and application of HBCD, and at the same time assist the member units to do a good job in the production, supply and application of environmentally friendly flame retardants to ensure market supply.
Xie Yuanjian, Vice President of Langshi
Zhu Yangyang, Partner of Vanke Materials Technology
Dr. Du Pont Liang Qing
Xiong Shaobo, Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Fuda
Dr. Liang Qing from DuPont, Deputy General Manager Xiong Shaobo from Guangzhou Fuda, Vice President Xie Yuanjian from Langshi, and Zhu Yangyang from Vanke responded positively to the Initiative from the technical points of banning HBCD, standard formulation and architectural design, enterprise switching to non-HBCD flame retardant, EPS/XPS production, green procurement in real estate development, etc., and introduced the next action plan and successful cases of banning HBCD.
This press conference is a new beginning on the road of banning HBCD. In the next step, China Building Energy Conservation Association will, under the leadership of the competent ministries and commissions, unite with China Real Estate Association and relevant associations from all over the country to organize relevant enterprises in the upper, middle and lower reaches to comprehensively promote the prohibition of HBCD and the alternative application of environmentally friendly flame retardants from the building application end according to the work plan.
Related background
Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) is an alicyclic additive flame retardant with high bromine content. Because of its low dosage, good flame retardant effect and little influence on the physical properties of materials, HBCD is widely used in the flame retardant of expanded polystyrene, polypropylene and other styrene resins. After HBCD was introduced into China, it was mainly used in building exterior wall insulation materials-expanded polystyrene foam (EPS), extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) and its flame retardant particles, and a small amount was used in the production of high impact polystyrene plastics or as flame retardant coatings in the production of polypropylene and polyester textiles. Although HBCD has excellent flame retardant effect, it will pose potential long-term harm to human beings and the environment. A large number of scientific studies have proved that HBCD is very toxic to aquatic organisms, especially to the thyroid system and liver system of mammals (including humans), and it is also toxic to reproductive and developmental nerves. Thus, the toxicity of HBCD is persistent, accumulative and migratory. HBCD belongs to REACH (registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals) of EU and PoHS directive of Norway.(prohibition on certain hazardous substances in consumer products), and its content in consumer products shall not be higher than 0.1%. In recent years, a high amount of HBCD has been detected in surface water, sediments, soil, atmosphere and biological media in China, which has threatened China’s ecological security and human health.
In May 2013, representatives from more than 160 countries and organizations in the world decided to ban flame retardant HBCD globally at the United Nations Chemical Conference. HBCD was added to the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (COP6) for deliberation, and by adding HBCD to Annex A of the Convention, the parties were required to gradually stop the production and use of HBCD during the exemption period, and at the same time, the production and use of expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene used in buildings were given specific exemptions. In July, 2016, the 21st meeting of the 12th the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) deliberated and approved the Amendment for Adding HBCD to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The Amendment added HBCD to the restricted control list, and the Amendment came into force for China on December 26th, 2016.
On December 26th, 2016, The Ministry of Ecology and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the state administration of work safety jointly issued the Announcement on the Entry into Force of the Amendment to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Announcement No.84 of 2016). It is stipulated that the production, use and import and export of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD for short) are prohibited in China from December 26th, 2016. Among them, expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene used in buildings (mainly used as flame retardants) can be produced, used and imported within the validity period of special exemption registration. In principle, the validity period of special exemption registration is five years (December 25th, 2021) after the Amendment takes effect in China.
In order to fulfill China’s international commitment to ban HBCD and implement the relevant national regulations, the Foreign Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Science and Technology Development Promotion Center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China Building Energy Conservation Association and other relevant departments have successively carried out related work, including studying foreign advanced experience, conducting enterprise research to grasp the current situation of the industry, organizing scientific research institutions to strengthen the research and development and verification of alternative products, and building close cooperation with relevant industry organizations.
China is in the process of rapid urbanization. The newly-built building area in China is about 1 billion ㎡ every year, and the energy-saving renovation area in China is about 200 million ㎡ every year. At present, the main means to realize building energy conservation in China is to strengthen the thermal insulation performance of building envelope, and adopting external wall thermal insulation technology and roof thermal insulation technology is an important way to improve the thermal insulation performance of building envelope. At present, in China’s construction industry, there are many kinds of thermal insulation materials used in exterior wall thermal insulation engineering and roof thermal insulation engineering. According to the composition of thermal insulation materials, they can be divided into three categories: organic thermal insulation materials, inorganic thermal insulation materials and metal thermal insulation materials. Among them, organic thermal insulation materials are widely used because of their advantages such as low thermal conductivity, high strength, low water absorption and good water impermeability. Since the development of building energy conservation in China, The demand for thermal insulation materials in building envelope has been increasing, and the long-term popularization and application of EPS/XPS flame-retardant board and its external thermal insulation system have led to the majority of mainstream thermal insulation materials in the market, while the market share of graphite polystyrene board, hard foam polyurethane board, rock wool board and other thermal insulation materials is less. At present, the main market players of thermal insulation materials are mainly EPS/XPS flame-retardant board production and application enterprises. Therefore, a total ban on the application of EPS/XPS flame retardant board containing HBCD in the construction industry will inevitably bring a big impact on the building insulation industry. Based on this,Under the leadership of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China Building Energy Conservation Association actively plays the role of industry organization, unites China Real Estate Association and relevant associations from all over the country, organizes relevant enterprises in the upper, middle and lower reaches, and jointly initiates initiatives to comprehensively promote the prohibition of HBCD and the promotion and application of substitutes from the building application end.