3.2 Consumer Organizations and Their Role in Consumer Education: Programmes and Experiences of the China Consumers’ Association
by Ren Jing, Deputy Director, Consumer Guidance Department, China Consumers’ Association, Beijing, China

Like many other consumer organizations, the China Consumers Association (CCA) often conducts comparative tests on products, in which the product performance, functions, safety, consumption of energy, economy and operability are tested, evaluated and compared in a scientific way. All the test results are then published in detail in the China Consumers magazine. They were also released at press conferences and made public to consumers in programmes of the CCTV, radio stations, Xinhua News Agency and other newspapers and magazines.


3.2.1 Comparative testing of consumer products

CCA has conducted comparative tests on scores of consumer products and has held regular press conferences to announce the results of the tests. These test results have played a positive role in guiding consumers in their rational selection of commodities and in urging enterprises to produce more products that can satisfy the needs of the consumers.

The consumer goods include foodstuffs, cosmetics, decorating materials, telecommunications equipment, clothes, daily necessities and household appliances. During the comparative tests of these products, CCA paid much attention to the evaluation of product impact on the environment and introduced the concept of "green test". Products are tested whether they produce harmful materials that may pollute the environment, whether they harm the health of the users, whether they produce excessive wastes and whether they save energy. In comparative tests on household appliances, whether a product saves energy is an important indicator for us to evaluate its performance.

When consumers choose an energy-consuming product, they should be able to maintain and improve their living standards with the least possible consumption of energy. Such products should save their family money as well as contribute to improving the dwelling environment and reducing air pollution.

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3.2.2 Promotion of energy-efficient products

CCA has always encouraged consumers to choose energy-efficient products. In the comparative tests, conducted by CCA on household appliances, such as home-use air conditioners, televisions, DVD video players and vacuum cleaners, the energy efficiency ratio and power consumption of the products have been tested and compared. Consumers are urged to choose low energy-consuming and high-efficiency products when their requirements can be satisfied with the same type of products.

Energy-consuming products caught the attention of consumers when the results of the comparative tests on home-use air conditioners were made public. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing demand for air conditioners among urban consumers in China. However, the enormous amount of energy consumed by air conditioners has constituted a huge burden on urban power networks and the family spending of consumers.

According to the relevant statistics, air conditioners have consumed more than 20 per cent of the total amount of electricity used during the summer in some metropolitan areas. The spending on electricity consumed by air conditioners has become the biggest item of daily power consumption for ordinary families. So there is a considerable demand for energy-efficient air conditioners among consumers.

However, many brands of air conditioners are available on the market so it's impossible for consumers to compare for themselves the energy-consumption of various air conditioners. They cannot know which brands of air conditioners are more energy-efficient.

Before the summer of 1998, CCA began comparative tests on home-use air conditioners, in which the energy-efficiency ratio of 21 brands of air conditioners was compared. For consumers, the greater the energy-efficiency ratio, the more electricity can be saved while the cooling output remains the same. CCA rated the comparative results with the "star" symbol. Among domestic brands such as Kelon, Mitsubishi and Gree, one type of product of each brand got five stars in terms of the energy-efficiency ratio.

CCA selected a large shopping mall in Beijing as the venue for releasing the comparative test results to media and consumers present on the occasion. Experts on refrigerators were also invited to answer questions from consumers concerning the purchase of refrigerators and to brief consumers on the significance of energy conservation of refrigerators. The comparative test results were welcomed by consumers. Surveys have shown that the sales volume of the products with five-star energy-efficiency rating have increased considerably on the market.

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3.2.3 On-the-spot demonstrations and testing

CCA has also adopted other methods to introduce energy-conservation of household appliances to consumers. For example, in 1997 when Chinese consumers began to show interest in microwave ovens, CCA set up on-the-spot test counters in department stores and invited consumers to operate the microwave ovens with their own hands. The amount of electricity consumed by microwave ovens was also tested so consumers see with their own eyes that microwave ovens are more energy-efficient, cleaner and easier to operate than traditional cooking utensils.

The experiment was broadcast live by the “Life” programme of CCTV, enabling hundreds of thousands of people not present on the occasion to obtain the information as well. Such live experiments, tests and comparisons by consumers have increased awareness of the concept of energy-saving products to an even larger number of consumers, playing a positive role in advocating the selection and use of energy-efficient appliances.


3.2.4 Promotion of energy-efficient lights

CCA is planning to conduct more tests on household appliances in the near future, such as the amount of water consumed by washing machines and the amount of electricity consumed by refrigerators. CCA is currently preparing for comparative tests on energy-saving lights. Electronic energy-saving lighting instruments are more energy efficient and easier to operate with a longer operational life span. A 7-watt, energy-saving lamp is as bright as a 45-watt incandescent lamp but the former has a life span eight times of the latter.

Since the 1990s, the consumption of electricity for lighting has increased more than 15 per cent annually. Ordinary incandescent lamps still comprise the largest proportion of lighting instruments.

Compared with Japan, the number of lamps used in China is 4.7 times that of that of Japan but power consumption is 5.8 times that of Japan. In China, the average light efficiency is much lower than in only one-third of that of Japan.

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It is important to advocate and encourage the use of energy-saving lights among Chinese consumers. However, due to the existence of a large number of inferior-quality energy-saving lights on the market, consumers cannot be sure they are buying good quality energy-saving lights even though they spend a lot of money on them. As a result, consumers have gradually developed such the idea that energy-saving lights only "save energy instead of money."

CCA is preparing to conduct comparative tests on energy-saving lights to help consumers purchase genuinely energy-efficient, reasonably priced, and good quality energy-saving lights, instead of low-quality and fake ones. The aim is to promote widespread use of energy-saving lights in China.


3.2.5 Reduction of packaging and waste materials

CCA believes that energy-conservation should not only apply to household appliances. Other products should also place importance on the conservation of energy and resources as well as the reduction of waste materials.

Currently, too much attention is being given to the packaging of commodities. This wastes resources and increases waste materials and should be opposed. In our comparative tests, we recommend to consumers products with less packaging and urge them to become environmentally friendly consumers. We urge them to choose products with less packaging or those that are not individually packaged.

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3.2.6 Lobbying the Government

CCA has noticed that the consumers’ choice has played a decisive role in the application of energy-saving products, but it is of equally vital importance that the Government update its policy and criteria. CCA pays much attention to advising the Government on problems that were found in our comparative tests so it can formulate policies and criteria to govern the production and marketing of energy-saving products.

In the past, our comparative tests have found serious problems in some products, such as the existence of carcinogens in lipsticks, asbestos in talcum powder for children, and excess amounts of mercury in speckle-removing cream. We forwarded our proposals to the Government which formulated relevant criteria after adopting our suggestions. The health and safety of consumers was then safeguarded.

The energy-saving lights mentioned previously are several times more expensive than ordinary incandescent lamps due to higher production costs. That is why energy-saving lights were not widely accepted by Chinese households. When our comparative tests are finished, the CCA is planning to work actively to advise the Government that it adopt a preferential tax policy toward enterprises producing energy-saving lights and products. The enterprises should be accorded a certain degree of preferential treatment so that they can reduce their burdens and further cut production costs. This can promote the cultivation of a benign market of energy-saving lights and expand market shares, which can in turn further reduce the production costs by means of economy of scale to entice consumers to choose energy-saving lights.

In addition, CCA is going to promote the formulation of relevant national criteria concerning the reduction of excess packaging and waste materials and the expansion of resource recycling. The phenomenon of excess packaging is widely found in many products. Besides the packaging of gifts, many daily necessities such as cosmetics, clothes (shirts) and food are also over-packaged. These consume a lot of resources, increase rubbish, and damage the environment. Based on results of our investigation, CCA will urge the Government to formulate a criterion on packaging in a bid to prevent excess packaging from going rampant.

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3.2.7 Recycling of components and raw materials

Many of household appliances are assembled with parts and components. When a product is no longer in use, its parts and components can be dissembled for use in another product or be recycled after they are re-processed into raw materials. When products are being designed and produced, the possibility of recycling them should be considered. This can save limited resources.

Some developed countries are formulating or have formulated laws to demand that manufacturers of household appliances consider the possibility of recycling the raw materials of products, or that their products have a certain proportion of parts and components that can be recycled. The goal is to prevent any new pollution from household appliances damaging the environment.

China is a major consumer of household appliances and disposed household appliances may become a major source of environmental pollution in the future. The Government should give attention to this problem and guide enterprises through policy formulation to adopt designs and production methods that can increase the recycling of components. We are now consulting with relevant experts to prepare for tests and an investigation into recycling the raw materials of personal computers. The results may serve as a reference for the Government to formulate relevant policies. 

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3.2.8 Promotion of sustainable “green” consumption

The United Nations Guidelines on the Protection of Consumers, endorsed at the United Nations General Assembly in 1999, added the principle of “promoting sustainable consumption”. It says: "All members and organizations of the entire society share responsibilities for sustainable consumption."

Consumers can play a necessary role in promoting consumption based on a sustainable environment, economy and society. Consumer organizations are responsible for promoting public participation in sustainable consumption and should work together with the Government and the industrial and business communities to promote sustainable consumption.

Sustainable consumption refers to the mode of sustainable development in economy, society and environmental protection that can meet the requirements of commodities and services for the generations to come. It includes the conservation of energy and resources and reduction of waste materials.

China is a populous developing country with a limited amount of per capita resources. It is especially important for China to promote sustainable consumption and ensure sustainable development, which bears an important significance for world development and human progress.

CCA has identified “green consumption” on its agenda as the “theme of the century”. Promotion of sustainable consumption is a priority in our work in the decades ahead. We will do a better job in enhancing “green tests” in the comparative tests of products. We will try our best to be a good advisor for consumers, and the Government as well, to promote the development and use of energy-saving products and contribute to the sustainable development of the economy in our country.

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