1. What is RoHS?
RoHS stands for "Restriction on Hazardous Substances". The role of RoHS is to reduce harmful substances [materials] at source. Ensuring that these hazardous substances are not leached into the environment by equipment which inevitably fails to be recycled. The WEEE Directive is a separate piece of environmental legislation, though it is directly linked to RoHS.
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2. What is WEEE?
WEEE stands for "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment". The WEEE Directive is primarily tasked with reducing the amount of electrical and electronic equipment (often expressed as EEE) from entering landfill at the end of its useful life by encouraging reuse, recycling and separate collection.
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3. What is the difference between lead-free and RoHS compliant?
While lead (Pb) is the most widely used RoHS specific hazardous substance in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), the term "lead-free" is often wrongly adopted to refer to all of the substances specified in the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive.
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4. When does WEEE and RoHS take effect?
WEEE = August 13, 2005
RoHS = 1 July 2006
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5. Who is impacted?
Ultimately, anyone who builds, markets or imports electrical or electronic equipment (or components) into the European Union must ensure that the product complies with the RoHS directive, regardless of where it was originally produced.
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6. What are the countries impacted?
RoHS & WEEE directives were instituted by the European Union in 1992. The EU consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. The directive extends to the European Economic Area (EEA) which also includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
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7. What should be within RoHS limit?
New electrical and electronic equipment put on the market should be within RoHS limits of: