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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:

  1. Large household appliances
  2. Small household appliances
  3. IT & telecommunication equipment
  4. Consumer equipment
  5. Lighting equipment
  6. Electrical & electronic tools
  7. Toys, leisure & sports equipment
  8. Automatic Dispenser

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

December 2008

The European Commission has published proposals to revise the RoHS Directive. These can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm

July 2008

  • New RoHS Government Guidance Notes have been issued to include the three new exemptions that were published in the Official Journal on 24 May 2008 and take account of the annulment by the European Court of Justice of the Decision exempting 'DecaBDE in polymeric applications' that took effect from 1 July 2008.

 

 

April 2008

  • TAC meeting was held on 10 April 2008. Unofficial meeting notes of the meeting can be found by following the link 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.

 

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

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

        

Procedures Exemptions Decision - 12 October 2006 PDF document (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

RoHS Exemption deca-BDE October 2005 (2005/717/EC)PDF document (36KB)

4.    21 October 2005 'First batch' of exemptions.

        Commission Decision adopting 'first batch' of exemptions

5.    21 April 2006 - Five further exemptions

        Third Exemptions Decision - 21 April 2006

6.    12 October 2006 - Nine further exemptions in three separate Decisions.

        

RoHS Commission Exemption Decision October 2006 (2006/690/EC)PDF document (31KB)

 

RoHS Commission Exemption Decision (2006/691/EC)PDF document (34KB)

 

RoHS Commission Exemption Decision October 2006 (2006/692/EC)PDF document (32KB)

7.    24 January 2008 - Three further exemptions.

RoHS Commission Exemption Decision (2008/385/EC)PDF document (32KB)

8.    WEEE Directive

        WEEE EU Directive 2002/96/EU

9.    Final regulatory impact assessment on the UK RoHS Regulations, last updated September 2005

       

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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 19 December 2008)

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