July 13,
2006
A
Flood of New Environmental Laws
The
European Union’s (EU) RoHS deadline has arrived, and much of the electronics industry
is breathing a sigh of relief. Most of the industry made the change to
lead-free components. But just as the RoHS deadline has come and gone, there
are plenty of new environmental laws looming. Much of the electronics industry
has ignored these laws in the rush to comply with RoHS. Here are just a few of
the laws and their deadlines:
China
RoHS – The deadline is a moving target. It started out matching the EU’s
deadline of July 1, 2006. Then it was moved to January 1, 2007, and most
recently it was postponed to March 1, 2007. The law identifies the same six
substances as RoHS, but includes stricter rules on packaging and labeling.
Plus, there are – so far – no exceptions to match the EU’s pass on medical
equipment, defense, aerospace and parts of the telecommunications industry.
Korea
RoHS – Korea has set the deadline of July 1, 2007 for its environmental laws.
These roughly match the EU laws.
California
RoHS – The California law goes into affect January 1, 2007. The law is roughly
a combination of the EU’s RoHS and the EU’s recycling directive, WEEE. There
are more than two dozen RoHS-like directives moving at various stages through
individual U.S. state legislatures. California is viewed as the most
restrictive, so manufacturers are hoping they can comply with the California
law and thus be compliant across the board. The electronics industry is pushing
the U.S. Congress to enact national laws that will standardize state laws.
The
EU’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) – This new
legislation bans additional chemicals from electronic products. It comes with a
series of deadlines phasing into law in three years, six years and eleven
years.
So
far, most manufacturers have focused on the EU’s RoHS laws. Few have rolled up
their sleeves and looked at the plethora of upcoming laws. “Some companies just
woke up to the European Union’s RoHS last month, so not many are ready for all
the other laws,” says Steve Schultz, director of strategic planning and
communications at Avnet Logistics, a division of the Phoenix-based distributor,
Avnet Inc. “These new laws are going to make things more complicated and
convoluted, and manufacturers need to know what’s in store for them in the
future.”
Schultz
notes that many companies are not aware of the differences between the EU RoHS
laws and the new directives coming out of Asia and California. “Everyone has
been focused on the EU RoHS and they now have to focus on the China RoHS with
its March 2007 deadline,” says Schultz. “There are a lot of questions about the
labeling issues. Simple things like labeling can get really convoluted, and
many details on labeling still have not been well defined.”
He
notes that EU’s REACH legislation is going to be even more difficult to comply
with than RoHS. “REACH is going to make life more complicated when it goes into
effect,” says Schultz. “REACH is asking manufacturers to maintain a centralized
database of information on the chemicals in their products. Our manufacturing
customers are going to need a lot of information about chemicals, and that will
be a big issue.” Schultz believes the biggest impact the environmental laws
will have on manufacturers is in the area of information technology. “Anyone
who has been involved in complying with these laws knows that IT has been the
most difficult and costly part of compliance.”
With
all of the new environmental laws coming down the pike, the electronics
industry will have to jump from one hot fire to another for many years to come.
In order to cope with this effectively, Schultz suggests manufacturers will
need to hire someone dedicated to studying the impact of environmental laws. He
believes that person should be part of the company’s design team. “If I were in
charge of an engineering group, I would have a person who was dedicated to
reviewing the chemical content of the parts,” says Schultz. “That person would
have to be aware of all of the requirements all around the world. And that will
have to be the case from now on.”
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