Electronic and Electrical Devices
This article was originally published in RAJ Devices
Executive Summary
Directives to reduce waste and prevent use of hazardous substances agreed
Directives to reduce waste and prevent use of hazardous substances agreed
The European Parliament and Council have finally agreed the text of two Directives relating to electrical and electronic equipment (including electrical and electronic medical devices)¹:
- European Parliament and Council Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE); and
- European Parliament and Council Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
The texts were agreed by the conciliation committee in November 2002, 16 months after the first proposal was issued, and are now awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
WEEE Directive
The WEEE Directive is intended to prevent or significantly reduce waste from electrical and electronic equipment through re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery, by introducing the following requirements:
- Collection and recovery of waste equipment:
- member states must introduce `take-back' systems and collection facilities for all electrical and electronic equipment by 2005 (WEEE must be collected separately); and
- WEEE must be collected at a rate of 4kg WEEE/inhabitant/year by 2006 (individual quotas have also been agreed for the recovery of particular categories).
- Financing with respect to WEEE from private households:
- individual producers will be responsible for financing the collection and disposal of their own products (the collection and disposal may be carried out collectively);
- financing of the disposal of products marketed before 2005 (historical waste) will be borne proportionately by the producers on the market at the time the cost occurs; and
- a guarantee must be given by producers when equipment is purchased that disposal will be financed.
- Labelling of equipment:
- producers will be required to label their products clearly to allow easier identification and dating; and
- consumers must be informed through appropriate labelling that waste equipment should not be disposed of with household waste and that all WEEE will be collected separately.
- Product design:
- dismantling and recovery should be facilitated at the production stage, in particular, technical design features preventing equipment from being reused are to be avoided.
Hazardous Substances Directive
The agreed text for the Hazardous Substances Directive on the restriction of hazardous substance (RoHS) will ban the use of certain hazardous substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium, in electrical equipment. This will come into effect on 1 July 2006, although a series of exemptions from the general ban on substances is laid down in the annex to the Directive.
References
1. European Parliament, Third Reading Final Report A5-0438/2002 on 1. the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee for a European Parliament and Council Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (PE-CONS 3663/2002 - C5-0486/2002 - 2000/0158(COD)) [and] 2. on the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee for a European Parliament and Council Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (PE-CONS 3662/2002 - C5-0487/2001 - 2000/0159(COD)), 5 December 2002