Pollutant Discharge Permit
排污许可证
In short
A pollutant discharge permit is issued to Chinese industrial facilities that emit waste water, waste gas or solid waste. It is held by the operating entity and tied to a specific production address. Trading companies do not hold one. For a buyer, it is among the strongest publicly checkable signals that physical production happens at a given site.
What it proves
- That an industrial production activity is registered at this address
- That the entity has passed an environmental assessment for that activity
- The permitted production scale, in tonnes or units per year
What it does not prove
- That the permitted capacity is actually being used
- That the entity complies with the permit in practice
- That the product you are buying is covered by the permit's scope
Most documents a supplier can hand you are, in the end, paperwork. A discharge permit is different: it is granted against a site, a process and a permitted volume, and it is administered by the environmental authority rather than by the company.
This makes it a useful counterweight to two common claims. The first is “we own a factory” from an entity whose business scope says wholesale. The second is a capacity claim — “we produce 40,000 units a month” — where the permit records a permitted annual output that makes the claim arithmetically unlikely.
The permit is also address-specific, which is the part buyers underuse. A permit for a site in one district cannot authorise production at an address in another. When a supplier’s licence address, permit address and the address you were given for a visit are three different places, that pattern is worth resolving before any money moves.
Two limits are worth stating plainly. A permit records permission, not activity: a facility can hold a permit for a line it rarely runs. And a permit covers the processes listed in it — plating, painting, moulding — not necessarily the finished product you are buying. A metal products factory with a permit for welding and cutting may still send its coating work to a third party.
For regulated categories, the permit is one of several. Food needs a production licence (SC), certain electrical goods need CCC certification, and each has its own register. None of them is a substitute for the others.
Last checked 2026-10
A document tells you what is claimed.
A visit tells you what is there.