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England Finally Transposes RoHS, But Still No WEEE

By John F. Mason -- Electronic News, 3/21/2006

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive has finally become a U.K. law, according to Steve Andrews, a member of the Sustainable Development Directorate in the U.K.’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The declaration was signed Sept. 25, 2005, presented to the Parliament on Oct. 7, 2005, and will go into effect on July 1.
 
According to an EU Commission spokesman, it wasn’t without a struggle. “We took the U.K. to the Court of Justice in December for their non-transposition of the directive. Malta [saw the] the same. And France received a reasoned opinion (last warning before we take them to Court). All three cases are still open.”
 
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, however, has not yet made it. On Dec. 14, 2005, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks announced that the implementation of the WEEE directive in the U.K. would be delayed, but that the government would review the proposals for implementation.
 
The review will be followed by a full consultation exercise in the spring of 2006 before the government proceeds to transpose the main provisions of the directive into U.K. law.
 
To comply with RoHS, producers of electric and electronic equipment (EEE) must demonstrate compliance by submitting technical documentation or other information to the enforcement authority on request. The documentation must be retained for four years after the EEE is placed on the market.
 
Offenses and penalties are steep: Contravening or failing to comply with RoHS regulations could result in a maximum fine up to the statutory maximum of £5,000 ($8,737) or summary conviction of an unlimited fine on conviction or indictment. Those failing to submit compliance documentation when requested by the enforcement authority may be liable for a fine up to the same amount.
 
Two categories not included within RoHS regulations, which appear in the WEEE directive, are medical devices and monitoring and control instruments. It is stipulated in the RoHS directive, however, that the European Commission should work to present proposals for including those two categories within the scope of the RoHS directive, once scientific and technical evidence has demonstrated that such proposals are feasible. The Commission has asked independent consultants to study the problem and present results by mid-2006.
 
The directive includes: large household appliances, such as large cooling containers, refrigerators and freezers; small household appliances, such as clothes dryers, dish washing machines and microwaves; IT and telecommunications equipment, such as centralized data processing, mainframes and personal computers; consumer equipment, such as radios and television sets; lighting equipment, such as electric light bulbs and fluorescent lamps; electrical and electronic tools with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools; toys, leisure and sports equipment; and automatic dispensers for hot drinks, for hot or cold bottles or cans, for solid products or for automatic money dispensers.
 
The regulations specify that RoHS-approved equipment must operate within a prescribed voltage range of up to and including 1,000 volts AC or 1,500 volts DC. Also covered are products that are dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to work properly. If electricity is used only for control or support the product is outside the scope of RoHS.
 
The RoHS regulations do not apply to: large-scale stationary industrial tools, such as a machine or system consisting of a combination of equipment, systems, products and/or
components, each of which is designed, manufactured and intended to be
used only in fixed industrial applications; spare parts for the repair of EEE placed on the market before July; the reuse of EEE placed on the EU market before July; to the specific applications of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE; and to weapons used for national defense, if they were designed specifically for that use only.
 
Sue Macdonald, DTI’s director of sustainable development, said on Dec. 14, 2005, that, “In light of Ministerial decisions to defer WEEE implementation, DTI would meet any costs to local authorities for arranging the treatment required for television and PC monitors containing cathode ray tubes and fluorescent lamps. When WEEE is in force, producers are held responsible. DTI will also pay the costs incurred in 2005/06 along with the annual settlement figure for 2006/07.”
 
DTI leads the EU negotiations on both directives, all of RoHS implementation and on most aspects of U.K. implementation of WEEE. The Environment Agency (SEPA in Scotland and EHS in Northern Ireland) will be the enforcement agencies for WEEE there. Responsibility for enforcement of RoHS has yet to be allocated.
 
A group known as Defra deals with certain aspects of domestic implementation, including drawing up guidance on how WEEE must be treated and assessing producers’ compliance with the collection, recycling and recovery targets. The Environment Agency will enforce these aspects.
 
On Dec. 14, 2005, the DTI announced that Energy Minister Wicks had instigated an immediate review of proposals for implementing the WEEE directive in the U.K. “The review will be undertaken by a cross departmental team and will be followed by a full consultation exercise this spring before we proceed to transpose the main provisions of the directive into U.K. law,” Wicks said.
 
DTI’s Macdonald formally stated the same day that the Minister’s review will be undertaken by a cross departmental team and will be followed by a full consultation exercise in the spring “before we proceed to transpose the main provisions of the directive into U.K. law. Until then, DTI will meet costs for arranging treatments required for any televisions and PC monitors containing cathode ray tubes and fluorescent lamps, which must be collected separately and sent to a hazardous waste landfill.” 
 
Landfill legislation has been amended to implement the landfill directive from July 16, 2004, so that no more co-disposal of hazardous wastes with other types of waste will be tolerated. This will have a significant impact on U.K. businesses, as waste disposal costs are likely to increase.