[GreenSupplyLine]: Gina Roos reports that Newark InOne, a leading N. American distributor of electronic components, is offering a downloadable RoHS legislation and technical manual
at its new RoHS Express web site. (Click here for the technical
manual.) It’s a 22-page RoHS Legislation and Technical manual that
includes an intro to the directive and a step by step guide to
compliance (which is easy to read and understand) along with a chapter
on soldering.
The European Union’s RoHS directive (Restriction on Hazardous
Substances) takes effect July 1 2006; WEEE (Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment) kicks in August 13 2005. Industry readiness – or
lack thereof, according to a soon-to-be- released survey I’ve just
reviewed – is cause for concern, considering that Europe represents
about a third of the electronics market.
Some companies are counting on extensions and exemptions. Some of us
are concerned about the economic impact on non-compliant companies if
the EU holds firm; these directives, the others that have followed
(like EUP and REACH) and the others yet to come were foreseeable, and
these potential impacts were avoidable.
But for that to happen, concerns — like electronic product compliance
— that have long been relegated to the tactical and dismissed as
driving cost need to be elevated to the strategic and understood as
driving profit.
See Risk, CFOs, and the Sustainability Business Case and It Began With a Dot: Product Regulation and Future Markets.