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EC Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS)

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) aims to minimise the environmental impact of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by reducing the quantities of four heavy metals and two brominated flame retardants which it may contain.

Products placed on the EU market on or after 1 July 2006 may not contain more than the specified limits of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).

The Directive applies primarily to those who manufacture Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), those who import these goods into the EU; those who export to other Member States; and those who re-brand equipment produced by others.

The RoHS directive draws its scope from the WEEE Directive and applies to categories 1-7 and 10 listed under Annex 1A of the Directive plus electric light bulbs and household luminaires. The categories are:

10.  Automatic Dispensers.

There are a number of exempted applications for these substances, some of which have been agreed since the UK laid the RoHS Regulations before Parliament. The UK Regulations will be revised to reflect these new exemptions in due course.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is the UK lead for the RoHS Directive being responsible for EU negotiations and UK implementation.

Index

1. Latest Information
2. Documents
3. Contacts

1. Latest Information

This section summarises key recent developments. More details and links to documents are provided in sections below.

February 2008

• New RoHS Regulations (SI 2008.37) were laid before Parliament on 11 January 2008 and will come into force on 1st February 2008, the regulations can be found on the OPSI website.

• The Department has re issued the non legally binding RoHS Government Guidance Notes

RoHS regulations: government guidance notes (165KB)

January 2008

• The Commission recently launched a review of existing exemptions and a request for comment on three new proposed exemptions. Comments are requested by 1 April 2008, further details can be found on the RoHS Exemptions website.

December 2007

• As part of the RoHS review the Oko Institut published a study on hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment not regulated by RoHS. A detailed project description and further information can be found on the Oko Institut RoHS  website.

•  The Commission recently announced the second stakeholder consultation for the review of the RoHS Directive, all comments are requested by 13th February 2008. Further details can be found by following the link below.

        RoHS Review - 2nd Stakeholder Consultation

November 2007

• The UK's RoHS Enforcement Body has published a report outlining enforcement activity since RoHS came into force on 1st July 2006. For the full report please go to:

         http://www.rohs.gov.uk/Docs/NWML%20Year%20One%20Report%20-%20November%202007.pdf

• The last TAC meeting was held on 12 November 2007. Unofficial meeting notes of the latest meeting can be found by following the link below.

Unofficial note of the Technical Adaptation Committee on the WEEE & RoHS Directives: 12 November 2007 (46KB)

July 2007

• The exemption published in the EC Official Journal on 12 October for hexavalent chromium in corrosive preventive coatings of unpainted metal sheeting expired on 1 July 2007.

October 2006

• The exemptions approved by the TAC in June 2006 were published in the EC Official Journal on 12 October 2006.
  Lead Crystal Decision - 12 October 2006 (31KB)

Procedures Exemptions Decision - 12 October 2006 (34KB)

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2. Documents

1.    EC Directive

        RoHS EC Directive 2002/95/EC

2.    Maximum Concentration Values

        Maximum concentration values - EU Commission Decision

3.    13 October 2005 - deca-BDE & lead in lead-bronze bearing shells & bushes

4.    21 October 'First batch' of exemptions.

        Commission Decision adopting 'first batch' of exemptions

5.    21 April 2006 - 5 further exemptions

        Third Exemptions Decision - 21 April 2006

6.    WEEE Directive

        WEEE EU Directive 2002/96/EU

7.    Final regulatory impact assessment on the RoHS Directive, last updated May 2006

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3. Contacts

For further information about the RoHS Directive please contact:

sustainability@berr.gsi.gov.uk

Anyone who would like to subscribe to our circulation list for occasional mailings on the RoHS Directive should sent their details (e-mail address, full name,organisation and address) to: dti_mailing@erm.com

(Site updated 17 October 2006)