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RoHS/WEEE Solutions - achieving and maintaining compliance
If you supply the electronics industry or manufacture electronic products, new legislation will dramatically impact your manufacturing processes, revenues, and costs. Two new directives, RoHS and WEEE, have been adopted by the European Union, and will affect OEMs selling into legislated companies as well as suppliers - even indirect suppliers - to those OEMs.
What is RoHS/WEEE?
RoHS, the Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances, bans the use of certain substances above specified concentration levels in electrical and electronic equipment products. WEEE, Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment, deals with the reuse, recycling, recovery,
sorting, and treatment of electrical and electronic products when they reach the end of their lives.
These policies were developed in response to increasingly serious waste-related conditions. Electronic waste is growing at a rate 2-3 times faster than any other waste stream. And technology breakthroughs will only escalate the problem. The RoHS and WEEE policies are based on the principles that prevention should be undertaken at the source, environmental damage should be rectified at the source, and the polluter should pay.
Who is affected?
If your company manufactures or sells electrical and electronic equipment, regardless of whether you sell into the European Union or not, you will be affected by this new legislation. These directives will also affect anyone who sells equipment produced by other suppliers under their own brand and anyone who imports (or exports) affected equipment into EU member states.
According to Business Week Online's August 9 article, "Europe's Push for Less Toxic Tech," "RoHS may be a European law, but U.S. manufacturers will have trouble avoiding the directive. The rules amount to a de facto global standard..." And other regions are following their lead. Similar legislation is being proposed in China, and many U.S. states have passed or proposed both RoHS-like and WEEE-like legislation.
RoHS and WEEE have created complications where outsourcing is concerned. If your name appears on the final product, you are responsible for compliance with the RoHS directive. Therefore, you will need to be certain that your outsourcing partner is managing these issues and you will have to be actively involved to ensure they are complying.
Learn more about RoHS and WEEE, how they will affect you, costs of compliance, and how to prepare for and capitalize on the new directives. WMS can help you with compliance with the new directives. Contact us to find out how.
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