EU RoHS and Upcoming Legislation

ABSTRACT The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), European Directive 2002/95/EC became effective July 1, 2006 in the European Union (EU). The RoHS directive works in conjunction with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2002/96/EC, which focuses on recycling of hazardous materials. The RoHS directive restricts the presence of six chemical substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Together, WEEE and RoHS place the responsibility for managing e-waste upon the companies manufacturing electrical and electronic equipment. The RoHS directive specifies a maximum concentration value (MCV) by weight in homogeneous materials for lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. It is the OEM’s responsibility to comply with the regulations and to determine the MCV for each of the controlled substances in their products. If the controlled substances are present over the MCV, the liability falls upon the OEM. Manufactures need to establish a documented and auditable system that prevents noncompliant products from entering the EU. This includes collecting certificates of compliance, full materials declaration sheets, and analytical test reports for the components they use. In addition to EU RoHS, the Administrative Measure on the Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products in China went into effect on March 1, 2007 with the initial requirement of product labeling. Referred to as “China RoHS,” this legislation restricts the same six substances as EU RoHS in addition to substances that can be added in the future at the discretion of the Chinese government. China RoHS requires the presence of any of the six restricted substances to be reported for all electrical and electronic equipment sold in China. The labeling requirement will be followed by substance restrictions similar to those established by the EU. The substance restrictions will be provided in a Catalogue that has yet to be released. Korea also issued its RoHS-like legislation entitled “The Act for Resource Recycling of Electrical/Electronic Products and Automobiles” to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on March 30, 2006. The restrictions of materials and enforcement dates have yet to be defined. It is expected that many other countries will follow suit in the near future and pass environmental legislation restricting the presence of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE).