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INTRODUCTION

In 1998, the European Union (EU) discovered that alarmingly large amounts of hazardous waste were being dumped into landfill sites. Trends also indicated that the volumes were likely to grow 3-5 times faster than average municipal waste. This highlighted a massive, and growing, source of environmental contamination.

In order to address these issues, the member states of the EU decided to create the Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE, 2002/96/EC) directive, whose purpose was to:

1. Improve manufacturers' designs to reduce the creation of waste,

2. Make manufacturers responsible for certain phases of waste management,

3. Separate collections of electronic waste (from other types of waste), and

4. Create systems to improve treatment, refuse, and recycling of WEEE.

The WEEE directive laid the groundwork for additional legislation and a proposal called EEE (Environment of Electrical & Electronics Equipment) was also introduced along the same lines. However, this policy is generally referred to as the RoHS Directive and is often referred to as "Lead-Free" legislation. This is not a very accurate nickname, because it extends to other pollutants as well.

The European Union (EU) directive 2002/95/EC "on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment" or RoHS was implemented in July 2006. This directive applies to electrical and electronic equipment designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,000 volts for alternating current and 1,500 volts for direct current. The requirements of this directive are applicable to the member states of the European Union.

The purpose of the directive is to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and to contribute to the protection of human health and the environmentally sound recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment. The EU's RoHS Directive restricts the use of six substances in electrical and electronic equipment: mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), cadmium (Cd), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).

In order to comply with the EU RoHS legislation, all of these substances must either be removed, or must be reduced to within maximum permitted concentrations, in any products containing electrical or electronic components that will be sold within the European Union. Manufacturers have made significant investments in new processes that will eliminate these substances - especially lead.

All applicable products in the EU market must now pass RoHS compliance. In short, RoHS impacts the entire electronics industry and compliance violations are costly - product quarantine, transport, rework, scrap, lost sales and man-hours, legal action, etc. Non-compliance also reflects poorly on brand and image and undercuts ongoing environmental and "due diligence" activities.