Get ready for REACH and RoHS 2
Europe's Restriction of Hazardous Substances law was just the beginning of a wave of environmental laws and regulations impacting the electronics supply chain.
By Jim Carbone -- Purchasing, 6/18/2009 2:00:00 AM
Electronics buyers may not yet need a degree in environmental law to do their jobs, but it wouldn't hurt.
That's because since the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) law went into effect three years ago, there have been a plethora of laws passed by countries, U.S. states and Canadian provinces affecting the electronics supply chain.
Many are RoHS-type laws modeled after the EU's directive that restricts lead, mercury, cadmium and several other substances from being used in electronics equipment sold in Europe. Countries such as China, Korea, Turkey and Ukraine and the state of California have passed their own versions of RoHS.
Others laws such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive require OEMs to dispose of products they manufacture in an environmentally responsible way once the equipment reaches end of life.
"A lot of it is copycat legislation," says Bob Sanders, senior technical staff member of IBM's supply chain global logistics organization at IBM. "What happens is when one new environmental law comes out like RoHS, it evolves and spreads around the world. It's a 'me too' kind of thing. There's a bit of one-upmanship," he says.
The challenge for buyers and suppliers in the electronics supply chain is that the laws may be similar, but they are not exactly the same. For example, the original RoHS had 29 exemptions, but RoHS-type laws in China and Korea do not have the same exemptions. In fact, China RoHS so far has no exemptions.
To deal with different versions of laws, IBM has a policy of not using a substance that is banned in any country, says Lou Ferretti, director of environmental compliance and supply chain social responsibility for IBM.
"We are not in a position were we can say a certain product can be sold in one country and not another," he says. "We've raised the bar so an IBM system is compliant with all countries' regulations no matter where we ship."
REACH for it
The next major environmental initiative that IBM and other companies are dealing with is Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals or REACH. REACH is not targeted specifically at the electronics industry. In fact it will affect all industries. Many of the substances that will be covered in REACH are used in electronics equipment in some form.
The idea of REACH is to discourage the use of certain substances that are known carcinogens or mutagens in products. The regulation requires companies selling products in Europe to disclose if certain substances are contained in the equipment they produce.
Right now there are 15 substances on a so-called "substances of very high concern" list. Diarsenic trioxide, lead hydrogen arsenate and cobalt dichloride—all carcinogens—are on the list. More substances will be added as early as September and eventually there could be several thousand substances listed.
"If your product contains these substances at a certain concentration level you have to disclose that fact," says Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates in San Francisco, which advises companies on environmental laws and regulations. "That means you have to get that information from your supply chain."
So, for example, if a computer company is buying a cable from a supplier, the buyer needs to find out if the cable contains any materials such as a plasticizer that may be made with one of the substances on the list.
The listed substances will not be banned but will be costly to use. Suppliers will have to get an "authorization of use" for the substance, says Gary Nevison, legislation and environmental affairs manager, for electronics distributors Premier Farnell, headquartered in London. It will cost companies about $70,500 to be authorized to sell the substances in Europe. As a result, many suppliers will abandon them in favor of other substances not on the list, says Nevison.
REACH is a front burner issue for many OEMs perhaps because it has a registration deadline of Dec. 1, 2010.
"REACH is the number one thing that is impacting our business," says Ferretti of IBM. "It is rolling out now and will roll out for 10 years." He notes that the number of substances of very high concern started out at 15, but could grow to 3,000.
Ferretti says REACH is impacting the specifications of parts that need to be purchased from suppliers.
"Our internal specifications must reflect the changes (caused by REACH) so we update and disseminate the changes to the design community and to suppliers," he says.
However, IBM suppliers are not asked to comply with REACH. "We are asking them to comply with our internal specification. That includes REACH requirements," says Ferretti. "It is part of the statement of work. It is up to us as the OEM to comply with REACH. It is up to suppliers to comply with our engineering spec and that enables us to comply with REACH."
Like RoHS and WEEE, REACH may serve as a model for legislation in other countries. "We have heard China and Korea will adopt similar regulations, but have not seen anything yet," says Kirschner.
Son of RoHS
While REACH may be a front burner issue for many OEMs, buyers must continue to deal with RoHS because there have been significant changes to the directive and the changes affect the supply chain. The changes to RoHS have been dubbed "RoHS 2".
"RoHS 2 won't have the massive impact that RoHS 1 had in 2006, but it is still significant," says Nevison of Premier Farnell.
He says a key change is that two new product categories—medical equipment and control instruments (test equipment)—will be included within the scope of RoHS.
"Those two were left out of RoHS 1 because of concern of about performance of lead-free solder in such equipment," says Nevison.
Nevison says, however, the deadline for inclusion of the two categories won't begin until 2014, except for in vitro diagnostic medical devices, which will be covered on Jan. 1, 2016 and industrial monitoring and control instruments, which will have an implementation date of Jan. 1, 2017. The European Commission (EC) will review whether to include active implantable medical devices by January 1, 2020.
Nevison says the EC may have been "generous" in terms of the implementation date because of feedback from the electronics industry asking for more time.
Banning more substances
While two more categories will be added to RoHS, there will also be in an increase in the number of restricted substances covered under the law.
"Right now we have six banned or restricted substances and four more have been proposed for priority risk assessment," says Nevison. The four are: hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). HBCDD is used as a flame retardant and the other three are plasticizers used to make plastic flexible.
"Ironically these four substances also appear under REACH. In the case of these four, if RoHS doesn't get you, REACH will," he jokes.
It is not known when the new substances will be added to RoHS. Stakeholder consultations have to be held with suppliers and users of the substances. The substances could be added in 2012, says Nevison.
Another change to RoHS is the number of exemptions to the law. The EC, which oversees RoHS, recently had technical consultants review the exemptions. The consultants recommended eliminating some of the exemptions which contain lead.
Of the 29 exemptions, five would be eliminated with a transition period ending in 2011. One exemption will be withdrawn with no transition period.
The exemptions that would be eliminated are: lead in linear incandescent lamps with silicate coated tubes, lead in the fluorescent powder, lead in certain amalgams in very compact energy saving lamps, lead oxide in glass used for bonding substrates of flat fluorescent lamps used for LCDs, lead oxide in the glass envelope of black light blue lamps and lead alloys as solder for transducers used in high-powered loudspeakers.
The decaBDE and hexavalent chromium exemptions were previously obsoleted.
The recommendations will be voted on by the EU's Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC) and be adopted by the EC before becoming effective.
There were also five new exemption requests involving lead in solders or the use of cadmium, says Nevison. Cadmium for use in solid-state illumination and display systems was proposed, but one other was rejected, and no recommendation by consultants was made on the other three, he says.
Nevison says another significant change to RoHS is that new exemptions will not last forever, only four years. "They can be renewed, but suppliers must apply at least 18 months before the expiration date," he says. Manufacturers must try to find more suitable alternatives and the process for new applications will include an analysis of alternatives, says Nevison.
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