Some 995,200 cars and trucks that failed to meet minimum emission standards were scrapped this year through October, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

The so-called yellow-label vehicles are mainly old trucks, buses and microvans. They include gasoline-powered vehicles that fail to meet State 1, or Euro 1, standards and diesel-powered vehicles that fall short of State 3, or Euro 3, standards.

At the end of 2013, China had more than 13 million yellow-label vehicles. The government expects to scrap all of them by 2017, according to a plan announced last year.

After removing 6 million yellow-label vehicles from roads in 2014, the government aims to scrap another 1.2 million this year, according to the ministry.

The ministry has yet to disclose how many yellow-label vehicles will be scrapped in the next two years.