Electro/Telecom Industry Trends
June 2005
Reviewing the Evolution of Hazmat Legislation
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A raft of new legislation has left electronic and telecom companies under ever-increasing scrutiny about the effects of their products on the environment and waste stream. While the most prominent of these new regulations is the European Union’s (EU’s) Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) directive, it is far from being the only law with which companies must comply.
RoHS, in fact, is based on an earlier EU ruling, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. The first major hazardous materials directive to affect electronics manufacturers in the EU, WEEE was designed to address the increasing amount of electrical and electronic equipment in the waste stream by making equipment producers responsible for recycling their products at the end of their life. To comply with the directive, producers need to provide information on hazardous materials in their products to recyclers, but unfortunately, there has been little direction as to which materials they should be listing. WEEE is set to become effective in August 2005, though the United Kingdom recently announced it was extending the deadline for U.K. companies until January 2006.
Another regulation developed by the EU is the End of Life Vehicles (ELV) directive. Passed into law in 2000, it requires car producers to limit use of hazardous substances in the manufacture of their cars and increase the amount of recycled components used in their products. It also makes car manufacturers responsible for the recycling of their products once they are no longer being used.
Hazardous materials regulations go far beyond the EU, though. In the United States, a number of states wait to make decisions on their own environmental regulations, while the state of California has already passed the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003. As with RoHS, the Act seeks to reduce the use of hazardous substances in electronic products sold in California. It includes provisions for the collection of an electronic waste recycling fee at the point of sale for certain electronic products, as well as a directive to ensure state agencies instate environmentally conscious purchasing criteria for specified electronic equipment.
China also is implementing its own version of RoHS. Named the Regulation for Pollution Control of Electronic Products (RPCEP), it is expected to be stricter than RoHS as it seeks elimination of the six substances that the EU’s directive limits. While the legislation is not yet complete, it may be affecting companies—both in China as well as those selling into the country—by July 1, 2006, the same day that RoHS goes into effect.
In Japan, the situation is slightly different. Despite the fact that the government has yet to issue any regulations regarding the use of hazardous substances, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association (JEITA) is actively promoting the elimination of lead used in electronic products and offers a road map for lead-free manufacturing as well as guidelines on how to mark lead-free components.
These are only a few of the initiatives underway around the world by governments and industry organizations to limit the use of hazardous materials and decrease the waste stream. And as concerns over the impact of products and commerce on the environment continue to grow, electronic and telecom companies will be finding themselves affected by the forces of legislation impacting how they design, sell, and recycle their products.