Are You Ready for the Revised RoHS Directive ?

The enactment of the RoHS Directive (2002/95/EC) prohibiting the use of certain substances in electrical and electronic devices (EEE) and the WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) regarding recycling obligations for EEE, had a very significant influence on the manufacture and import of electrical and electronic devices to the EU.

Beyond the issue of the additional production costs arising from the obligation to comply with the directives, manufacturers and importers have experienced confusion about the definitions under RoHS as they apply to their products and the actions to be taken in order to comply with the directives.

After an adjustment period of few years to the RoHS directive, a revised ‘recast’ version was published in June 2011, which in many ways fundamentally changes the ‘old order’ and gives new definitions to the terms and concepts used in this field so far.

Nonetheless, for manufacturers, importers and other actors along the production chain, these changes have also brought certain benefits; compliance with the directive is now considerably clearer.

In this article wel describe and clarify some of the new concepts under the modified requirements of the recast RoHS Directive and how to comply with the new RoHS.