Last month’s SBGi on HSF column, “Now What?,” focused on the emergence of RoHS and WEEE as part of the global hazardous-substance-free (HSF) movement. This month, we’ll look at what has been happening in the electrical and electronics equipment industries and in the European Union related to RoHS and WEEE, and the lessons learned.

Industry responds to the EU directives
In general, chaos, confusion and denial have characterized industry’s response to the European Union directives to restrict hazardous substances in products and to manage processing at the product’s end of life to ensure proper disposal of those substances. While the directives were issued a few years ago, they only came into force on July 1, 2006. Many companies struggled mightily, nobly and at great cost to ensure compliance by the effective date. Many others have not, choosing instead to wait and see what happens.

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