Stricter Management of Hazardous Substances in Products Proposed

In the run-up to the enforcement of the European Union's Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) in July 2006, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment set up a panel to study ways to reduce environmental impacts of hazardous substances in products, and released the panel's report on August 12, 2005.

The RoHS Directive aims to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and to promote environmentally sound ways to recycle and dispose of used equipment. The following six substances are covered with some exceptions: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalant chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). The directive will ban the use of these substances in electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market beginning July 1, 2006.

The report proposes that the ministry take the following measures in the near term:
(1) Indicate the presence of hazardous substances in products (e.g., by establishing a RoHS mark system), based on the proposed amendment to the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources
(2) Provide information on the presence of RoHS-banned substances when used products are transferred to waste management companies
(3) Formulate guidelines to clarify items to be entered in Waste Material Safety Data Sheets, documents that industrial waste generators must submit to waste management companies under the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law
(4) Provide information on the RoHS-restricted substances through the ministry's new website that allows consumers to find environmental data on individual products
(5) Strengthen information management relating to hazardous substances under the government's green purchasing scheme, by amending the Law on Promoting Green Purchasing



Posted: 2005/11/27 11:59:11 PM
Japanese version