Frequently Asked Questions on Environmental Issues

Q: Does the Directive only refer to lead?
A: Lead is just one of several banned substances in the RoHS Directive. While the industry has adopted the terminology of "lead free", removing lead alone will not achieve RoHS compliance"

Q: What are the substances?
A: Cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as well as lead (Pb).

Q: Is the legislation global?
A: The need to comply will evolve globally. Japanese manufacturers have been reducing lead levels for 3 or 4 years and, in the USA; California has already passed legislation to fall approximately in line with the EU timescales.

Q: What are the benefits of the RoHS Directive?
A: The extraction of these raw materials and their eventual disposal, can cause damage to both the environment in terms of pollution, as well as to human health from occupational exposure and exposure following disposal. The removal of these materials from production will reduce the health risks of exposure.

Q: What are the alternatives to banned substances?
A:

Material	Alternative	Limitations
Lead in solders	Tin alloys	All different, most have higher melting point. Sn 3.5 Ag 0.7Cu most popular.
Mercury wetted relays	Gold plated contacts	Impossible to achieve zero bounce without mercury, life much shorter
Hexavalent chromium passivation	Various alternatives	For exposed metals, alternatives give inferior performance in many cases
PBDE in plastics	Other flame retardants	All perform differently. May require more to achieve same performance and could affect physical properties.
Silver / Cadmium oxide contacts	Silver / Tin oxide contacts	Performance not identical, may affect useful life under certain conditions.

Q: Why recycle?
A: When obsolete materials are not recycled, raw materials have to be processed to make new products. This represents a significant loss of resources as the energy, transport and environmental damage caused by these processes is significant.
In 1998 it was estimated that of the 6 million tons of electrical equipment waste arising in Europe the potential loss of resource was:

· 2.4 million tons of metal
· 1.2 million tons of plastic
· 652,000 tons of copper
· 336,000 tons of aluminum
· 336,000 tons of glass

This was in addition to the loss of heavy metals, lead, mercury, flame-retardants and more. The production of these raw materials and the goods made from them entails environmental damage through mining, transport and energy use. For example, recycling 1kg of aluminum saves 8kg of bauxite, 4kg of chemical products and 14 kilowatts of electricity. The nature of many of these materials is such that they can be recycled with relative ease, preventing the need and wastage associated with producing new raw materials.

Q: What's happening globally in terms of recycling?
A: 13 countries already have laws in place for electronic take-back and it is estimated that within 5 years as many as 28 countries will have such legislation. In addition, the EU is currently expanding the directive on rechargeable batteries to cover a wider range. Currently 20 countries have a mandate for take-back on such batteries. Nine collection schemes are in force in Europe for recycling electronic waste, for example Holland, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, and Belgium. An alliance has been formed between Sony, Electrolux, Braun, and Hewlett-Packard to implement their own pan-European collection scheme.
The US proposed 52 electronic waste bills in 26 states during 2003 as well as 65 mercury-related restriction bills, 10 of which affect electronics. At present 38 states have e-waste programs of different kinds. California, Massachusetts, Maine and Minnesota have recently banned CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes) from landfill sites.

Q: What is the rest of the world doing? - Japan
A1: As the world's number one developer and manufacturer of electronic components and PCBs, the entire electronics assembly industry has begun to pursue aggressively the removal of lead from the manufacturing process. This was started back in 1998 when the Japanese government increased levies for recycling leaded equipment. The target the Japanese government has put in place is a removal of over 90% of lead by the end of 2003.
A2: With the implementation of the RoHS and WEEE Directives at member state level, it is estimated that Europe is around a year behind Japan's aggressive environmental manufacturing laws, with the USA is a further couple of years behind.

Q: What are the abbreviations for common metallic elements?
A: Abbreviations for metallic elements appearing in this database:
Ag: silver
Al: aluminum
Au: gold
Bi: bismuth
Cd: cadmium
Cr: chromium
Cu: copper
In: indium
Mo: molybdenum
Ni: nickel
Pb: lead
Pd: palladium
Pt: platinum
Sb: antimony
Sn: tin
W: tungsten
Zn: zinc
Sn-Ag-Cu: Refers to compositions near the eutectic