Chris Sherwood

1
WEEE RoHSSituation Report
The Commercial Service at the US Mission to the EU

• Chris Sherwood
• Rosemary Gallant
• U.S. Mission to the EU
• May 11th 2006

2
U.S. Missions Involvement

• Growing number of enquiries
• Market Reports
• Meetings with the Commission for clarifications
• Coordinated EU wide website

3
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Directive (WEEE)

• The WEEE Directive aims to limit the amount of
  electrical waste in landfills.
  
• On August 13, 2005, producers of EEE became
  financially responsible for the collection and
  recycling of EEE. For B2B sales, some countries
  may allow different arrangements (e.g. customers
  paying).
• Producers must register in each member state as
  part of WEEE compliance.
  
• Equipment must be marked with crossed-out wheelie
  bin symbol.
  
• Member States may require documentation to
  contain collection recycling information too.

4
WEEE Scope
1. Large household appliances 2. Small household
appliances 3. IT and telecommunications equipment
4. Consumer equipment 5. Lighting equipment 6.
Electrical and electronic tools (with the
exception of large-scale stationary industrial
tools) 7. Toys, leisure and sports equipment 8.
Medical devices (with the exception of all
implanted and infected products)
9. Monitoring and control instruments
10. Automatic dispensers
5
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive
(RoHS)

• The aim of the RoHS Directive is to reduce the
  environmental impact of WEEE.
  
• The RoHS Directive bans Mercury, Cadmium, Lead,
  hexavalent Chromium, PBB and PBDE in products
  from July 1st 2006.

6
WEEE/RoHS Website

• Went live on June 20th, 2005
• Includes the latest information available to us
  on WEEE and RoHS
  
• Lists country specific information
• Practical content such a s FAQ and RoHS
  exemptions documents
  
• New materials added every week

7
(No Transcript)
8
Implementation Issues WEEE Registration
RoHS
WEEE
/

• U.S. companies are unable to register for WEEE in
  some member states. This means importers or
  distributors or customers must register for
  them.
• On our request, the European Commission
  intervened in Ireland and companies are now able
  to register there.
  
• Commercial Service in Portugal worked closely
  with the WEEE register, and now US companies can
  register in Portugal.
  
• Denmark and Germany (and probably others) now
  allow US company registration.

9
How to Register
RoHS
WEEE
/

• A common approach is to require that
• for B2B sales, the customer registers as
  producer.
  
• for B2C sales, the distributor or re-seller
  registers.
  
• In many cases, no solution exists for foreign
  companies that sell direct to consumers onto an
  EU Member State market without using middle-men.
  

10
RoHS
WEEE
/
Harmonized Registration

• Some Member State registers are seeking to
  harmonize
  
• Information requirements for registration
• Application forms
• This will take some time. But it will greatly
  facilitate registration for US companies.

11
Implementation Issues WEEE Scope
RoHS
WEEE
/

• The scope of WEEE is not clearly defined in the
  legislation (not clear to us whether it should
  be).
  
• Key scope questions still open
• Fixed installations
• Military/security

12
RoHS
WEEE
/
WEEE in the New Member States

• New Member States were allowed until 2008 to
  implement WEEE as part of the deal on EU
  membership.
  
• Some of them have not used this grace period and
  have already implemented.
  
• Others may not implement fully until the
  deadline.
  
• The situation is fluid check with each
  country!
  
• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech
  Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus,
  Malta

13
RoHS
WEEE
/
EU Wide Compliance Schemes

• Many producers want to join a pan-European WEEE
  compliance scheme.
  
• Few, if any, have complete coverage yet but they
  are building up quickly. This appears to be a way
  to reduce costs.
  
• Some service providers are listed on our web site.

14
RoHS
WEEE
/
EU Wide Resources

• The following organizations may be helpful in
  fulfilling your compliance requirements
  
• RENE, Recycling Network Europe A network of SMB
  sized companies with experience in electronic
  recycling.
  
• EARN, European Advanced Recycling Network A
  collection of recyclers specializing in solutions
  and funding RD.
  
• ERP, European Recycling Platform Set up by large
  corporations to enable efficient recycling.
  
• WEEE Forum representatives of voluntary
  collective take-back systems.

15
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Put on the Market
Definition

• When does EEE have to be RoHS compliant?
• When it first clears EU customs?
• When it enters the national market on which it is
  sold to the end user?
  
• When it is sold to the end user?
• There is no EU-wide agreement on this, causing
  major headaches for exporters to the EU.
  
• The European Commission supports 1 above, and is
  taking action against countries that disagree.
  This will take time to work through the system.

16
Implementation Issues RoHS Enforcement
RoHS
WEEE
/

• No EU rules on how RoHS should/will be enforced.
• Approach likely to be based on self-certification
  in most EU countries, with first stage of checks
  relating to supply chain evidence of compliance,
  and testing as a last resort.
• Fines prison terms as possible penalties in
  some Member States.

17
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions
RoHS
WEEE
/

• Category 8 (medical devices)
• Category 9 (monitoring control instruments)
• Both are excluded from RoHS until 2009 at the
  earliest.
  

18
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions

• Military/Aerospace
• Fixed installations
• Spare Parts
• Equipment that is part of another piece of
  equipment not covered by RoHS
  
• (some doubt about these remains)

19
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions
Exemptions can be obtained for sound environment
al and/or technical reasons Can be a long proce
ss, and may be too late in many cases.
20
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions

• 92 exemptions have been requested since 2003.
• 20 have been adopted, although more are still in
  the pipeline.
  
• Many more have been rejected.
• Companies often do not understand how to make a
  good request.

21
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions

• Exemptions procedure
• Exemption requests submitted via the Commissions
  web site.
  
• European Commission launches a public
  consultation (last approx 2 months).
  
• Consultant appointed to assess the merit of
  requests.
  
• Consultant carries out study and files report,
  normally within 3 months.
  
• European Commission issues a proposal for a
  Decision (no deadline).
  
• Member State experts vote on the proposed
  Decision.
  
• Decision comes into force on publication in EU
  Official Journal (a few weeks after adoption).
  
• The whole process can take a very long time. The
  first set of exemption requests was submitted in
  late 2003-early 2004, the consultation was
  launched in June 2004 and closed in July 2004,
  and the Decision was not finally adopted until
  October 2005! We are aware of at least one
  exemption that was requested in 2004 and is still
  pending.

22
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions

• Dos and Donts
• A. Understand the two criteria that the EU is
  allowed to take into account, and what makes a
  bad argument.
  
• Technical feasibility (good argument).
• Environmental impact (good argument).
• Cost or cost/benefit (bad argument).
• Need more time (bad argument).
• Supply chain would need to be changed (bad
  argument).
  
• B. Refer to existing exemptions that follow
  similar logic or have similar characteristics.
  
• C. Answer the questions that are asked in all the
  stakeholder consultatios that the Commission
  runs.
  
• D. Be aware that your competitors (both European
  and US) and environmental NGOs can contribute to
  stakeholder consultations on your exemption
  requests. Build your requests to withstand the
  assaults of such interested parties. Is your view
  that no substitutes exist supported by others in
  the industry? Does your competitor have a
  lead-free product line where you dont? Remember
  that your credibility is at stake.

23
RoHS
WEEE
/
Implementation Issues RoHS Exclusions
Exemptions

• The normal exemption procedure does not always
  apply
  
• Competition gets nasty
• On the hexavalent chromium passivation coatings
  exemption request, three large domestic appliance
  companies sent a letter to the European
  Commission demanding that the request be turned
  down. They have succeeded in slowing the process
  down.
• Member States take control
• Two exemption requests dealing with lead in glass
  were due to be rejected by the Commission, but
  Member States intervened and the requests have
  been reworded and may yet be adopted.

24
Further Information

• http//www.buyusa.gov/europeanunion/weee.html

25
Thank You
Rosemary Gallant Chris Sherwood Commercial
Specialist U.S. Mission to the EU Chris.sherwood
_at_mail.doc.gov
32 2 508 2624