[Chinese Mainland] GB 4287—2026 "Water Pollutant Discharge Standard for Textile Industry" 9月 Takes Effect: Acute Toxicity Control Added, New Dyeing and Finishing Projects Prohibited from Discharging to Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Introduction

The mandatory national standard GB 4287—2026 "Water Pollutant Discharge Standard for Textile Industry" officially took effect on 2026年9月1日. On the basis of the original concentration limits, the new standard adds acute toxicity control indicators for the first time, and clearly stipulates that new printing and dyeing (dyeing and finishing) projects shall in principle not be connected to municipal wastewater treatment plants, forcing textile industrial parks and printing and dyeing enterprises to build their own or rely on centralized professional treatment facilities. The water treatment threshold for the textile industry, a high water-consuming and high-pollution sector, has been significantly raised.

Background

Textile printing and dyeing is a key industry in industrial wastewater treatment, and its wastewater is characterized by large volume, high color, high concentrations of organic matter and salts, and poor biodegradability. The old standard was relatively weak in the control of acute toxicity and characteristic pollutants, and some enterprises transferred difficult-to-treat wastewater to municipal wastewater treatment plants through "discharge to sewer," causing impacts on the terminal system. With the coordinated advancement of precise pollution control and pollution reduction and carbon reduction in river basins, the systematic upgrading of industry standards has become inevitable.

Core

The core changes of GB 4287—2026 are concentrated in three points: first, new control indicators for acute toxicity (such as inhibition rate of luminescent bacteria) are added, filling the gap in toxicity risk control; second, limits for multiple direct discharge and indirect discharge parameters are tightened, imposing stricter requirements on COD, ammonia nitrogen, Total Nitrogen / TN, Total Phosphorus / TP, and characteristic pollutants; third, it is stipulated that new dyeing and finishing projects shall in principle not be discharged into municipal wastewater treatment plants, and those that truly need to rely on them must meet special pretreatment and monitoring conditions. This means that centralized treatment in industrial parks and segregated quality and flow diversion will become the mainstream compliance pathway.