Q3 2005
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Q3 2005 |
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WEEE and RoHS Compliance There are a number of deadlines fast approaching for producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) related to labeling, registering, reporting and establishing take back schemes for their waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The most immediate deadline was August 13, 2005. This is the key date for producers to have collection, treatment and recovery systems in place for their WEEE and to label all covered products with a crossed-out wheel bin. This date, followed then by July 1, 2006, is when RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (2002/92/95/EC) will ban the sale of certain new EEE that contain more than specified levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. Producer Obligations Producers are required to register with all member states (where they are a producer) and register the quantities (market share) and categories of EEE “put on the market” and the quantities and categories WEEE collected reused, recycled and recovered. The views of the European Commission have been provided in a frequently asked questions (FAQs) format http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste.com and, while not legally binding, they have addressed “put on the market” as the “initial action of making a product available for the first time on the Community market. This takes place when the product is transferred from the producer to a distributor, final consumer, or user of the Community market. Producers are also required to provide information to users about the treatment, recycling and recovery obligations of the WEEE Directive.
Producers (or third parties acting on their behalf) are required two recovery rate targets: a general recovery target and a component, material, and substance target. Producers must keep records of the mass of their WEEE, their components, materials or substances when entering and leaving their treatment or recycling facility to document compliance to the very specific recovery rates required.
Do you join a collective scheme or not? As a producer you are required to provide for product take-back. This decision requires analysis of the business case for joining a trans-national collection scheme, a country specific collection scheme or establishing an individual take back scheme. Some questions that a company may want to ask themselves as it evaluates its options are: how many products are shipped to the European, are the products easily shipped back to the US, can a stronger tie be forged with the customer by offering a direct return, is there confidence in the supplier operating the collective scheme. In your analysis you should consider the asset value of the WEEE as you are unlikely to receive little credit for the asset value if you join a collective scheme.
A few cautionary notes A company should plan on auditing the treatment and recycling facilities on a periodic basis if it elects to join a collective scheme. The EU recommends, but doesn’t require, these facilities be in conformance with the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) requirements (similar to ISO 14001 but with a strong compliance component).
Member states will initiate penalties for non-compliance for breaches of these requirements and intend to inspect and monitor for conformance. Fines for non-compliance may be substantial. In Germany, fines range from €10,000 to €50,000.
Under the RoHS requirements producers must demonstrate compliance to the Directive. By placing the product on the market you, as the producer, are declaring that the product is conforming. It will be up to the individual member states to verify conformance and determine appropriate penalties for non-conformance.
As producers you will want to confirm with your suppliers that their component and subassemblies are RoHS conforming or if they need to be re-designed or re-formulated. If you supply components or sub-assemblies you will want to provide representation to your customers that your product meets the requirements. If you are a producer you may wish to seek an indemnity from your suppliers for damages, losses and penalties that might arise from non-compliance with RoHS or with mis-representations of compliance to RoHS. And, if you are a supplier, you may be asked for an indemnity or you may want to offer one as a competitive market advantage. ARCADIS has extensive experience with WEEE and RoHS compliance for manufactures, producers and their contractors. Working from both the US and with our ARCADIS colleagues in Europe we can provide the analysis and support your decisions to identity the best registration and collective schemes for your company, we can work with your supply base to ensure that you have an appropriate conformance and verification system developed, we can provide treatment and recycling facility audits to independently verify the collective’s processes, procedures and recordkeeping, and we can work internally with your product engineers to develop systems, methods and on line access to restricted materials globally as new products are being developed or old products are being re-designed or reformulated. Our experience includes:
For more information please contact either of the following ARCADIS experts:
In the U.S.
Outside the U.S.
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